Darkened Moonlight
by ArgentumPoeta
Summary: Link rejects the fate and the event of Ocarina of Time is no longer a valid time line. The endless string of prophecies shoves Link right into the time line of Four Swords. The broken state of the prophecies forces Link to wish away the things that he knows and loves. The storyline and structure closely resembles a Final Fantasy storyline, but isn't a crossover.
1. Fate's Castaway

**Fate's Castaway**

In the black, and golden gleam of the illusive shadows of the Triforce, lie the basis of the world. What the legends never speak of is the black blasphemy that is the polar Triforce: a Triforce from the Silver Realm, reflecting all that is evil and blasphemous to the Goddesses of Light, as depicted in the lost half of the Mythos. As a new legend unravels the darkened and scarred underbelly of the gilded Hylian Mythos.

In the Hero's beginning, the year of 736, his beautifully made spirit had been given flesh, forged out of the fiery gales of the Goddess's fury. Whenever his mother had the honor of holding the child in her arms, she saw something greater than just a regular baby boy. She saw the essence of the Gods in him, she saw the eye of Din radiating in his heart. She always had a feeling that this child would some day, do something wonderful and beneficial to the world.

What she didn't know was that with every centimeter of his body, came darkness for every bit of light that shone through him. The divine transaction of making Link's body the most perfect and most fit to be the Hero of Time also called for putting a recessive amount of evil that would creep it's way and pierce the surface in an unearthly rage. The poor child suffered from his own hatred of evil, he would grow to save the world several times, but he would never get rid of the evil that sprouts underneath the gilded surface. It would be up to Link to save him from himself.

Seven years later, Link has rejected the prophecy and has run far away from the Kokiri forest. He has come to know a new fate, for he has surrendered his selfish will not to serve the people. Some of the sages would tell anyone else otherwise simply to avoid further damaging the fabrics of the prophecies that the world was based around. They definitely don't want any of the mortal souls that inhabit the world of the living that their life was constantly being changed by the prophecies, their life's story was a literal chapter in the Goddesses' book collection of passed histories.

The knowledge that their lives had already been decided would be against the divines' will. While Link did prevent the rise of the demon spawn Gannon, he also opened a crack into Link's demonic side. It would soon grow and continue growing until Link has finally found a new way to cancel out the warp between his standard time line and the new potential universe that he created. If he didn't soon return the fate of the universe and serve the purpose of his creation, he would unravel the dark seed of the Triforce that contained the God of Darkness.

Known by several names: CyclosZephos, Vaati, Gannondorf, etc., the power would sprout the inner darkness and give a new definition to vile. All hope of regaining the universe's original form was lost until Link had traveled far east from the Kokiri Forest to the Forests of Mist and met the Tree Elves of Mist: Atsuko and Shinra. It was now Atsuko's sole job to point Link towards the fate that the Goddesses had given him. Luckily, Link had an entire two years until he had to go. They didn't have to directly shove him into being the Hero of Time. In fact, they didn't make any light of it until Link knew them better, one year later.

This is the tale of the evil that couldn't be stopped. This is the Legend of a new world of hell's own creation. This was the time line of Blackened Moonlight.

* * *

In the early scarlet morning, the sun greeted the moon and stars and outshone them. The blackened sky now shone blue, and the Forest had been replenished of its diurnal life.

Link had awakened with a large yawn, garbed in his night clothes: a green snowball cap, a green tunic with warm fur lining and shorts. Knowing already that he couldn't go back to sleep, he saw it fit to garb his day clothes, "Hmm... I wonder if there's anything that I _can_ wear," he said, eying and scanning for tunics that didn't smell for he hadn't had a shower nor bathed his clothes for a little over a month. Concluding that there was nothing that could even be described as halfway descent, he decided to finally start washing his considerable amount of laundry.

Atsuko walked into Link's room and held her nose, "Gods, I sure hope you're going to wash those before you wear them. Besides the fact that you're a boy, you still have to be somewhat descent," she observed the putrid pile of clothes and in comparison to Link's finely groomed, full, and healthy hair. "You take such fine care of your hair, but you take no such care of your garments and clothes", she laughed.

Link just gave Atsuko a half-jokingly cold and self conscious stare, "My hair is very important to me. Besides, I don't want my head to itch all the time," Link satisfied the itch on his lower back. Atsuko laughed at the utter irony of what Link said.

"You _sure_ don't like itches, do you?" Atsuko said, sarcastically. She digressed, "Seriously, you should do some laundry today. You'll never be a ladies' man if you stink like a pig," she smirked, exiting the room and leaving Link to his mountainous pile of filthy clothes. Before she forgot, "Link, I moved the cleaning appliances a shelf down, I replaced it with the scrolls," she said, referring to the laundry utilities and the prophecy scrolls.

"Okay," Link accepted it. "_It's better than me opening the old drawer to a bunch of drawers, way too early for that_". Link grabbed a pile of his clothes without checking to see if he had plenty of pants and shorts for the numerous amounts of tunics that he had. He hoped that he didn't have to compensate for the odd ends of clothes. As well as the potential uncalled for surprises, he surely didn't have the morning energy to sort out which clothes are missing.

Link opened the door with his back, using the fingers that he could without dropping the pile of clothes and headed towards the pond. He lay his clothes down on the floor, "damn...," he cursed, realizing that he had forgotten both the bathing appliances and a basket to house the clean clothes. "You know, it's hard to be positive early in the morning whenever this happens," he grumbled.

Link had returned to the pond, confident that he knew that he had no more backtracking as he had checked for all the things that he needed prior to leaving. He even took the liberty to take two changes of clothes with him just in case he didn't have enough shirts/pants. He finally dipped all of the clothes in the basket to soak them.

Shinra had peaked out the window to Link finally washing his grotesque pile of laundry after two months of "Recycling," as Link called it. "...And you call that recycling," he said, sarcastically. He decided to join Link while he wasn't doing anything. Walking up to Link, still garbed in his night clothes, "Why are you still garbed in your nightgown, Princess Zelda?" he joked.

"Because these lazy servants are too useless to even wash these clothes for me," Link joked back. "I digress; on what behalf have you decided to join me?" Link asked Shinra.

"Gods, only 7 and you've already got a colorful vocabulary," Shinra commented. He got to the point, "I decided to join you on behalf of how absolutely boring it is to wait for your laundry to get to a state of being washable".

Link didn't really think that bathing his laundry was boring more than it was time consuming, "The clothes do have to absorb a certain amount of water before these chemicals can do their job of cleaning". He was right, but Shinra didn't really like to wait for things that could potentially get done much faster, such as laundry. Shinra did however, enjoy meditating because it didn't necessarily involve waiting for anything more than it involves letting the state of meditation last as long as it needs to.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Shinra said. He sat down next to Link, addressing Link not dressing in day clothes, "Isn't that uncomfortable? sitting on the ground in shorts that weren't designed to do things in the daylight?" he asked.

Link shrugged in indifference, "I don't really think so, I mean it's sort of strange, feeling the rocks and dirt on my upper legs," he said, starring into his reflection from the pond. "I didn't really have the attention span to think about it. I didn't even put on my boots, but I did notice that my feet were being burned by the rocks that have been bathing in the sun for at least an hour". He felt the burning sensation from his heels as the sharp and hot gravel pierced them the most. "I like to put my legs in the pond, anyways. So it didn't make much sense to garb my boots".

"I can see that," Shinra said. Shinra wanted to address something that was of great importance, "You know, all of the prophecies that Atsuko read to you could have come true," he said, his velvet red eyes peered off into the trees that the pond reflected.

Link looked up to Shinra with a confused look upon his face, "Where did that come from?" Link asked, clueless as to where it was all leading to. But very little did he know that he was going to change the world in just a year, he was going to befriend so many people and discover what he was meant to be. He would even meet and become good friends with the princess of Hyrule: Princess Zelda.

"You were meant to be the Hero of Time," Shinra said, with a very sharp and frank point about him. "I'm not going to sugarcoat the prophecy, and it was you who rejected fate. Regardless of how young and naive you were a year ago, you have to find a new way to keep this new universe from spawning and canceling the existence of an evil universe".

Link looked at Shinra with a blank expression on his face, but he knew just how truly shocked he was about the whole situation, "What do you mean? I'm the... Hero of Time?" he asked Shinra. "I never once thought that I would wake up to such tidings". Link didn't know what to do about it though, the only hope that he had was to discover a hidden alternative prophecy, a recessive counterpart to the original prophecy.

"That's right," Shinra said, smiling. "You do have to discover an underlying prophecy that hides behind the words that compose the original prophecy". he didn't want to make too much light of the situation because there existed no light in the shrouding darkness of this underlying prophecy, "I'm not going to lie, this is going to be anything but easy and straightforward. Knowing you, I think you'll do just fine as long as you keep your wits about you".

Shinra's explanation did nothing but further perplex Link, "How can I possibly keep any wits if I don't know what I'm up for?".

"You'll soon know well what you're up for," Shinra said. "Trust me, you'll get through it. I'm not at liberty to tell you about the prophecy, though," he said, as if reading Link's thoughts. "It's not that I don't want you to know, it's that the sudden turn of events could've changed the alternative prophecy completely. It's all about understanding the sequence of events before you face them, not even Atsuko can hold your hand and tell you the way to go".

Link flushed at his comment, "How will anything be correctly revealed to me if I have no reputable sources to depend on?". Link didn't understand the notion of trucking on through the unknown without a resource.

"That's where the Goddesses come in," Shinra said. "They designed, engineered, and created every aspect of this world and know it's functionality inside and out," he said. "They don't really want the believers of their religion to know that they can only spiritually intervene with mortals because there are other Gods that guard many aspects of this world. They can only instruct you to remove the existence of an evil force with the power to dramatically change the world's existence".

Link drew the clothes out of the basket and let them sit over the water as the clothing dripped onto the water. He would hang the clothes on the clothing to dry whenever the clothes didn't drip onto the pond anymore. "...And they chose me to be their Hero?" Link asked.

Shinra nodded, getting up and wishing Link well, "I'll give you time to absorb that mess of information. I know how sudden, but I had to seize the moment before I forgot to," he walked back inside of the house.

"How _could_ I absorb that much information?" Link wondered, he didn't understand how Shinra could lie down such a far fetched concept to him. Especially since he was only 8 years old at the time, "It's not just telling me something that I can't understand. I'll soon understand as long as I have something that I can learn off of," he said.

* * *

Link had finished washing his clothes and they had remained hanging on the clothes line for about an hour or so, since then, Link had since went on to Atsuko to get any details of what would soon happen, any information that could be deemed useful.

"So I'm guessing Shinra told you everything?" Atsuko asked with a slight smirk on her face. She continued to pick berries as Link began to explain to her his confusion.

"I don't know if I _can _do anything about it," Link said, a prominent flush of guilt flashed across his face. He knew that Atsuko would start off her explanation by scolding Link's tendency to flush at his self-consciousness.

"Well first off, you've got to learn that you're not perfect," Atsuko said, smiling at Link. She adjusted her sedge hat, "You can't be ashamed of yourself just because you feel as if every bit of your body must be perfect just because you're the offspring of the Goddess. It was in fact, written and reinforced through and through that the Hero of Prophecy had been implanted a small seed of darkness in the transaction of giving a piece of the three Goddesses flesh".

"I still don't get what I can do about it," Link said. He realized that he didn't take account of Atsuko's reassurance, "I mean, I appreciate you reassuring me. But I need to know what to do, I can't figure it out on my own".

"Normally, you would retrieve the three spiritual stones," Atsuko began. "...But now that there exists no need to do this prior to going to the Dark World because Gannon would have never become a threat. You have to carve out your own path, it won't be easy. It may be easier than it was beforehand, but it may be even harder". Atsuko had taken a serious tone, "You were the one who dug the hole, and you're going to equally be the one to carve your path through the depths out of the road to success".

Link had gotten slightly discouraged whenever he heard a side to Atsuko that he had never heard before. It was quite weird for the Tree Elf who babied Link carelessly for most of his life, "You say that like I can't do it," Link said, monotonously. However, it was quite evident that Link had been feeling somber.

"You cannot do it on your own," Atsuko began. She adjusted her sedge hat again, she wiped the sweat off her brow and slightly squinted to protect her eyes from the sun. She eyed Link, "You need to open the eyes of your heart and see your passion to love the world. You can't save Hyrule as the weak, shy little boy that you are now. But whenever time comes, you will find the power in yourself to reflect the powers of evil and eradicate them". She smiled, "Don't give up, and don't lose hope".

Link smiled, "I'll do whatever I can. But words don't cost a thing, I'll take it to my grave," he boasted. Realizing that he had boasted, he had also realized his hypocrite statement.

Atsuko nodded her head, "Don't even apologize," she had moved on the trail. "You're still learning and this isn't even the beginning of the amount of learning that you'll have to do". She looked towards Link with a smirk, "You especially have a lot to learn. It's really quite a shame that you'll have to grow up so fast, but such is the way of Goddesses".

Link didn't particularly favor the way of the Goddess. Not just that involved the act of Link breaking a sweat, but the immense amounts of pressure that is yet to topple Link, "I don't like the way of the Goddesses".

Atsuko chuckled a little at Link's ever so obvious comment, "I don't think anyone really _likes_ the way of the Goddesses. You've got to learn to enjoy life for what it is and not what you want it to be. Or else you'll find that you don't enjoy life as much".

* * *

Later on that day, the evening had come and Link had been inside actively fixating on the decisions that he is yet to make. Link however knew that he didn't have to decide right away, but he felt that he must make his decision as soon as possible and go through with whatever he chose. He just wanted to get rid of the guilty feeling that he was induced with, he couldn't stand whenever he made selfish decisions under the notion, "_I spend too much time helping others anyways. It couldn't hurt if I just satisfied my needs for once_". It seemed like every time he made a selfish decision, something bad happened.

Link made a realization, "Every time I make a selfish decision, I _always_ end up causing something awful to happen," he had half a mind just not to make any self promotional decisions that didn't involve giving him the means and the power to help those people.

Atsuko walked into Link's room, "You know, you don't have to stress yourself out with this 'decision' as you wanna call it". She brushed her black hair away from her face and sat next to Link. Being about where Link was and the heat made the room significantly less mild and temperate. She felt the contempt that Link felt about himself on behalf of the so called selfish decision that he had made. "I want to alter my stance on what Shinra and I said about you rejecting the fate of the Hero of prophecy".

"You mean to say that what I did wasn't necessarily a bad thing?" Link asked. He was confused as to how one could so easily change the way they think just by affect towards another person's reactions. "You mean to say that this decision didn't reject the will of the Goddesses?".

Atsuko put her arm around Link and held him close, "It's not that, but I sincerely believe that you've done something beneficial to the cosmos in the act of rejecting the power of the Triforce and potentially preventing Gannon's existence. That's such a big thing that a little guy like you has done. In fact, it's sincere and intelligent that you've done such a thing because that means that Gannon potentially would have never existed in the first place".

Atsuko's explanation like all the other times, didn't particularly help the fact that it seemed like she never made a concrete decision without flopping back and forth between two ideas, "I guess I understand. It's a lot for me to understand".

She still smiled at Link. Aside from the fact that her explanation didn't serve Link any other purpose but to further confuse him, "The times are coming, Link," she said. "I can't stress enough how much you'll need to understand prior to undertaking such a difficult task". She pointed her index finger on Link's little chest with her hand almost the size of the entirety of his chest, "Inside the body of a weak little child, there's a strong Hero that has been suppressed. I know for fact that you can do it".

Link's confidence saw a small boost from Atsuko's encouragement, "It's nice to know that I at least have people on my side to help me accomplish my goal," he said.

"You need as much help as you can get," she said. "Not even the strength of 1000 Orks would amount to the strength that you'll need. If I didn't love you, then I wouldn't tell you that the road to success isn't going to be easy". She turned towards the setting sun, "Gods, it's getting late. I promised Shinra that I'd assist him for catching fish for dinner". She looked to Link, "Can you be depended on to get us some berries for dinner?".

"It's my turn to get the berries, anyways," Link said, in agreement. "I'll go right away".

"That's what I said to do, wasn't it?" Atsuko asked, jokingly. They both left the room and the house in preparation for dinner.

* * *

During the same night, loose mentioning of an unexplained evil was spreading around some security wings of Hyrule Castle. On of the few guards who caught a mentioning of the so called, "Coming of Times," and notified the King of such threats. No potential threats or warnings were ever made in a joking manner in the Castle of Hyrule or anywhere the perimeters of the entire Citadel.

A knight garbed in golden armor stepped up to the throne in a dignified manner, "Your majesty," he bowed to the King in respect. His red cape fluttered in the draft that resulted in his bow.

"Please, don't call me your majesty," the King said. "For the Divine deserve such respect; at ease, my friend".

The knight loosened his posture, "It seems as if local superstition is going around in the security wing of _The Coming of Times_. In fact, it's gotten quite a bit of notoriety in the city, throughout".

"Yes, I've heard of such things," the King replied. "I won't take such warnings lightly, but I will act by the will of the Goddesses". The King gestured towards the left wing and right wing as he gave details of how to organize the troops of soldiers, "I want extra guards and soldiers towards the outskirts of the Castle, 50 more soldiers on every part of the inner left and right wing provided they can fit. Furthermore, I want more knights and troops to guard the inner city and guards on the outskirts".

The Royal Knight absorbed the information that the King gave him, "How many troops?" he asked.

"500," he said. "Organize them uniformly, I don't want the slightest bit of disarray. Surely you can do the job".

"Yes, sir," the knight exited the building right before Zelda entered with an unusual look of worry and suspicion.

"Father? Why do we need more troops around the Castle, are we going to be safe?" Zelda asked, with a very concerned tone.

Her Father laughed, "Of course we are". He knelt to Zelda's level and reassured her that there isn't a force in the world that could surpass the strength of their armies, "Come, dear. Look out the window".

The King and Zelda walked up to a large balcony just outside of the throne room, which was on the 6th floor of the Castle. Zelda looked in awe of the thousands of guards outside and throughout the Castle and outskirts of the Castle's courtyard who scouted with a routine and structured pattern. "There are so many of them, they're like Robots armed with swords," but she hadn't had the slightest idea of what a Robot looked like. She only saw the blueprints and prototype sketches that hung in the Sorcerer's gallery just aside from the throne hall.

"Not even the strength of 1000 Orks would ever break the strength of my assembly," the King boasted. "Only the Three Goddesses' could smite my well armed forces". The King walked back into the throne room and saw that Zelda was convinced. But that was long before she saw the Dark Orks smite the castle, kill the King, the Soldiers and eventually her. Zelda hoped and prayed for the sanctity of the Castle, for she dreamed of such happenings.

"I'll put all my faith into them," Zelda said.

The King pointed to Zelda's forehead, "...And into the provision of the Three Goddesses".

* * *

While Link was asleep, he could feel the evil radiating from the far southern parts of Hyrule. Towards Gerudo Valley, it was the feeling of Gannon beginning to turn into a serious threat. However, Gannon was very far from the real threat. He wasn't the threat at all in comparison to what Link needed to fear.

Shinra felt it to, he shrugged it off on behalf of Atsuko telling him over and over again that it wasn't a problem. But Shinra insisted that he had read a prophecy long ago that detailed what would happened if the chosen Hero of Prophecy would reject fate. For once in Atsuko's lifetime, she was incorrect in saying that, "Everything will be fine". He promised himself that he would tell Atsuko that he wasn't being paranoid, that he wasn't just trying to spite her jokingly. But in the morning, he was barely able to manage a clear thought.

Atsuko felt it and she had stood there, wide awake and waiting for the morning to come. The prophecy spat itself out faster than Atsuko could have possibly imagined, "This isn't good. It really isn't good. I have to tell Shinra, I don't even give a damn if he thinks that I'm joking," she sat there, sweating and as frozen, still and lifeless as ice. "I'll drive it into his skull if that's what it takes to get through to him, as long as we can plan for what Link would do soon".

Zelda especially felt the darkness and she was dreaming about what would happen if Link didn't rise out of the darkness. However, Zelda is still in the mindset that Link is a Hylian Kokiri whenever he has rejected it. Zelda's mislead thoughts are especially dangerous and even more dangerous if there's no Link to tell her that he canceled the original prophecy by violating an aspect of it. But she was never wrong about prophecies, she would do anything but appreciate some random boy coming all the way from the outskirts of the forests just to confirm that her prophecy was false.

Whenever the morning came; Link, Atsuko, and Shinra rose out of bed to tell each other that this prophecy was a lot more real than they would have ever anticipated.

Link arose to tell Atsuko. As they met eyes, Link jumped right in to explanation, "I've gotta tell you something that I feel very strongly about".

Atsuko came to Link's terms, "I've got something first, and I promise that it's more important. I need to be totally straight with you". Atsuko began to explain to Link but Link cut into her in mid speech.

"I'm not sure if you know or not, but this prophecy is more real than you've told me before," Link motioned towards his heart. "I can feel it in my conscience". He digressed and consented Atsuko to speak.

"I was going to say the same thing," Atsuko said. She took Link's hand and hurried towards Shinra's house, "That's not important. We've gotta tell Shinra, it doesn't matter if he already knows. I need to apologize, at least". She resisted the urge to apologize to Link for what he was going to have to do pretty soon, she couldn't tell Link that he must be the Hero of Time. That never worked with Link.

They shortly arrived to Shinra running towards Atsuko's house, "Atsuko, you need to know". He was going to explain to Atsuko what he felt ever so vividly last night, but Atsuko interjected to tell him everything that she was waiting over 6 hours to say.

"I'm sorry that I told you that it was all going to be fine," Atsuko said. "I wanted to tell you the same thing, but I knew that you and Link tend to worry too much". Shinra was about to get angered at Atsuko but knew that what she did was the right thing to do.

Shinra forgave Atsuko because he knew her motives like he knew the back of his hand, "Don't worry about it, the point is that it's early enough for us to do something about it," he assured both them and himself, "_I hope,_" he thought to himself.

Atsuko had an urgent feeling about her, Shinra even more so. But they couldn't let their feelings and emotions distort the reality, for it was no way of dealing with anything. Link simply followed along with Atsuko's last minute instructions.

"Link, I never thought that I would be the one who would have to explain to you what you must do," Atsuko prefaced. She went on right into the instructional portion and didn't even digress to continue on, "First, you must know that you won't die. This by _no_ way means that you're immortal, don't kill yourself. Secondly, this won't be easy, so don't play around. Thirdly, follow my every instruction, even if it seems ridiculous or unnecessary. Let's get on with it, before it's too late".

Atsuko nodded and Shinra took the signal, "I'm sorry," Shinra apologized. His eyes shone and he put his hands over Link's face, forcefully. Link screamed in pain for about three seconds and fell out cold. Link fell loosely to the ground and Shinra picked Link up and they began walking.

"Just follow my league," Atsuko said. "We've got to hurry, we don't have much time until the portal closes".

Shinra nodded, "Lead the way; I'm right behind you". They ran out of the forest and ran towards the castle through the Forest's shortcut. "But what happens if we're too early". Shinra expected Atsuko to tell her something just slightly snide.

"The early bird catches the worm," Atsuko said, breathlessly. "Why do you ask?".

"I mean if we're off by as much as a year as previously thought," Shinra clarified. "_Hopefully this isn't some false alarm, I can't take much more of this_".

They cleared through the forest portion of the run and passed through a bit of light forest accompanied by grass and shrubs, "Hopefully, this isn't the case," she said, in agreement. "I should at least hope that the Goddesses have their shit together enough so that we didn't just risk our sanity over nothing," she said, vulgarly.

Shinra had never seen Atsuko like this, he knew it was important. But even whenever Shinra had broken his arm, Atsuko had never been this urgent, and they were very careful of each other. "I'm sure the Goddesses wouldn't put us through such trouble," Shinra barely said, as his gasps for breaths obscured his clarity.

They had reached the Castle Town, and everyone looked at Link, Atsuko, and Shinra and asked, or said, commented things such as, "Who are you? Can I help? My Gods, what happened? Will he be okay? Poor child. Milady, will he be fine?". It wouldn't be long until they reached Hyrule Castle Town's Holy Temple: The Temple of Light. They needed to make it quick, they were short of time.

"We don't have any more time," Atsuko stopped to catch her breath. "Give Link to me, I know that you can't take much more. Hurry!".

Shinra nodded, but a medic saw them and offered them a hand, he put a stretcher and placed Link on, "Where to?" he asked as he knew that time wasn't abundant at the time.

"The Temple of Light," Shinra ordered. "Hurry, we don't have time for safety". Against the medic's better judgment, he followed Shinra's orders as he was in ownership of the boy. They hurried towards the Temple.

Atsuko and Shinra had jointly put Link on to ground, "Good. Good," Atsuko took a breath.

The medic left, "I'll be outside if you need any more help," he soluted farewell.

Atsuko smiled and said, "Thank you anyways, but your help is no longer needed. I'll put fate into the Goddesses' hands," she said. "_Don't you fail me now,_" she thought to herself. "_You and I know well that no profit can come from it_".

Shinra took the signal as they both breathed energy back into Link as he gasped for breath, "My Gods! Where am I?" he finally grasped consciousness. He coughed and hackled as his lungs dilated.

"Fourthly, you must use your magic with Shinra and I to open the gate," Atsuko said. "Whenever the time comes, you will be pushed through a portal into a different time. The sword that lie in the alter would have been destroyed by the force of the darkness".

"But what about the welfare of the world?" Link questioned.

"I told you not to question me," Atsuko scolded him. She explained anyways, "However, it is important for you to know that know that no time will pass in the events of you saving the world. Much like the ever famous Clock Tower in Termina. Now, I packed you clothes that you'll wear throughout the quest," Link pulled out a green tunic much like the tunic that he wore. "I know you don't like anyone in the room while you're changing, but it can't be helped as of now, please excuse the inconvenience". She handed him the clothes.

As Link was about to question Atsuko again, he just submitted and turned around to garb the clothes, "_Just don't flush and you'll be fine. They're not even there,_" he told himself in thought.

Atsuko sensed that the time was coming pretty soon, "You'd best hurry up if you wanna pass through the portal. It doesn't stay open for very long, you don't even want to know what would happen if the portal closes in mid-transfer". Atsuko had noticed that Link had finally garbed the clothes.

Link handed Atsuko his normal clothes and she wished him well.

Atsuko put her hands on Link's shoulders saying, "You can do it, Link. I wish you the best of luck," she kissed Link's forehead. Her smile dissolved into a serious expression, "The portal is opening, help me open it," Link agreed as they put as much energy into the door as they could.

Link could see small cracks in the door that glowed a blinding blue. The small little cracks broke into giant shards that fell violently onto the ground with massive crashing noises. He wished that he could cover his ears from the thudding noises. He noticed that the shards were a perfect circle that made the door look like it was designed to have a hole in the center. The black portal opened up where the Triforce once stood.

"Hurry! Get in before it's too late!" Atsuko yelled over the screeching sound of the portal. "I love you, Link!".

Link reached out to them, "I love you too!" he hugged Shinra and Atsuko, ran and dived into the portal. His vision went blank as he felt himself being erased from the world. But before he could behold the new world, he fell out cold again.

* * *

Link woke up, squinting at the vibrant sunshine that shone over him. Soon, his eyes adjusted to the light and he found three others who were identical to him save for the color of their tunics. One wore a violet tunic, another wore a blue tunic and the last one wore a red tunic.

"Are you okay?" one of them asked.

"I dunno," Link said, with a dazed and confused look on his face. "There are three of me with different colors of tunic," he observed them. Link was entirely sure that he was still unconscious and dreaming. "I might be dreaming".

Red looked down to him with a bright face and vibrant blue eyes that shone almost as bright as the sun. He put his face close to his and said, "You're still dizzy, aren't you?" he giggled in a very surprisingly feminine way. "I told you that he was going to be corky!" he directed towards the others. He bowed and said, "My name's Red. It may not look like it, but I'm not a version of you. I'm actually a separate entity, entirely. I just look like you as well as the others because we reflect your physical appearance".

Link felt his bright persona almost beat down on him, he brushed himself off and slipped away from Red. "_What did I get myself into?_". He couldn't believe his eyes, he was a bit scared that he saw three others who were identical to him, "_What kind of prophecy is this?_".

"You look confused," Vio commented. "My name's Vio and that's Blue. You're probably wondering if you're dreaming and just how you got here if you're not dreaming," he guessed.

Link was a little shocked, "How did you know?".

Vio shrugged and gave a smile that was disturbingly similar to Atsuko's, "I can read your facial expressions". Link could tell that he was very good at reading people's thoughts based on their facial expressions. "I assure you that this is no dream, this is as real as all the other moments in your life".

Blue grew increasingly annoyed at Link's confused look , "Would you wipe that confused expression off your damned face!? You look more confused than a baby!". Link tried his best not to do that, anymore.|

Red couldn't help but grow amused at Blue's red face, he fell on the floor, giggling. It was almost inhuman for anyone to find something like that so funny, it was like he had inhaled laughing gas. Red gasped for breath, and tried to retain composure, "My sincerest apologies," Red apologized.

"Hopefully you're not as over reactive as this clown," Blue grumbled.

"Give him a break," Vio said. "He just regained consciousness not so long ago. Maybe you should calm down".

"Why I-," Blue started. He stopped in mid-sentence realizing that Vio had a point. "You're right, I overreacted".

"By the way, I'm not a clown!" Red yelled, with a strange sense of fanfare about him. Link already tell that Red was always extremely happy and Blue was always bitter while Vio retained calmness.

Link was really starting to feel unsure about this, "What are we going to do about the darkness?" Link asked. "How are we going to fix this?".

"You're not the only Hero here," Blue said. "We were summoned by Shinra and Atsuko to assist you with your first go at being the Hero of Time". Blue observed Link's current state, "I can see why, you look and sound no different from a blubbering toddler". Blue smirked, "Sorry to break the bad news, Sally. But you've got a long way before you make it".

Link grew irritated at Blue's undermining of Link's strengths. His eyes grew bright blue, "I'm getting Goddamn irritated at your snide comments. You need to look at it this way: I'm the one with the power to send you back to where ever you came from," he stormed.

Blue made a fake yawn, "You can't do anything to me anyways. Besides, you wouldn't hurt the person who's helping you".

Red whined at Blue, "Calm down! Please!" he begged of Blue. He eventually calmed down but that didn't fix Link's hatred for Blue's attitude for him. However, Red grew to really like Link. He tugged at Link's tunic and said, "It's okay! We can become friends! The best of!" he cheered.

As much as Link wanted to shove him off, his sincerity and innocence was kind of admirable about him. Besides, Red treats him very compassionately for someone who just walked into this new realm. "You know, I like you, too," he said. "_At least you don't act like a jerk_".

Blue chuckled at Link's rotten attitude towards him, "Are we done? We need to address some issues that need to be taken care of".

Vio cut right in, "We don't need your snide comments, either". He directly addressed Blue, "Maybe we should move on to something more important, as you would put it". He continued on, "I'm guessing that you want to know what's going on and how to fix it?" he assumed.

Link nodded, "Yes, I do".

"Good. Everything Atsuko and Shinra told you is exactly what's wrong," Vio motioned Link to come towards the sword that lies in the pedestal. "Do you see this? It's the Four Sword. Whenever you draw this sword and use it against your foes, the power spreads to us. Now, just because we're assisting you doesn't mean that we're going to hold your hand throughout the entirety of this Quest". Vio motioned for Link to draw the blade, "Draw the blade and distribute the power of this blade to the other three of us!".

Link approached the blade and drew the blade. It grew in size as his blade was practically infested with raw power, he released it and the Four of them became one. Link wondered just how Vio knew them, "How do you know them?".

"I can read your thoughts, if I hadn't clarified before," Vio said. "What they said should be enough explanation".

After Link drew the Four Sword from it's pedestal, he and the others were right and ready to leave. It made Link feel a little nervous that he was wielding such a sharp blade, "_What if I accidentally cut my hands off? Or kill someone? Or worse, kill myself?_" Link was making himself incredibly sick. "I think I'm gonna vomit".

A harmless shadow pixie neared Link, he screamed and aimlessly swung his sword. Turning the butterfly into pieces that flew to the ground.

"For the love of Gods!" Blue yelled at Link. "It's just a damn butterfly! Nothing to fear!". Blue hung his head at how pathetic Link was.

Red cosigned Blue, "Blue is right, though. You can't just swing your sword around aimlessly and not hurt anyone". Red continued on. "I'm sorry to be harsh," he squeaked.

Link resisted the urge to give Blue what he wants: a reaction, "It's fine, Red". He calmly went on with them.

Vio confronted the three of them, "We have three possible options: we can head towards the Forest Temple, or South east to the Death Mountain and to the Fire Temple, and far south to the Water Temple. I say that we should simply head to the Forest Temple to get that out of the way". He directed himself towards Link, "But I'll warn you that it won't be a walk through the park, at all," he motioned towards the Lost Woods, "The Lost Woods concerns me the most".

"But aren't we in the Lost Woods now?" Link asked.

"This is just Forest," Red said. He looked around and observed all of the trees, "This is practically the safest place in all the land. As you can see right now, there aren't much in the ways of monsters and demons".

"The lost woods is far beyond the Temple of the Four Sword," Vio said. He dismissed the conversation completely, "If we want to have any chance of making it in time, we'll leave right now. We can't afford to waste any time; for all we know, we're already pressed for time".

"Then it's decided, let's leave this place as quickly as possible," Blue concluded. He headed right to pass the Temple, the three of them followed along closely.

"_I don't know how this happened,_" Link was astonished at how he could have possibly triggered such a bad event. He was trying his best to ignore his urge to let his emotions overtake him, he just wished everything that he once knew away. Hopefully, he would be able to overlook this horrid quest and return to his normal life as a normal elf.

Vio again, read Link's mind, "Try not to think about it too much," he sported a lack of any facial expression. "You'll get passed this misadventure, just don't pay it any mind". Vio could indefinitely tell that Link didn't want to even make light of his advice. |

* * *

They had finally reached the gates of the Forest Temple. It was more of a garden than anything else, and the Temple itself didn't really have walls either. The Temple was a giant Gazebo that towered several stories and was garnished with intricate designs of marble and gold. Topped on the highest height of the Temple, was a dark green crystal that shone a black ray of light that seemed to pierce all light that entered through the heavens.

Link was taken aback by this architectural marvel of a Temple, "It's so... magnificent. It's... so grand and so enticing". Link walked through the gates of a beautiful garden decorated with daisies, roses, and hydrangeas of several different colors. The garden was abundant with moisture as if it had rained not too long ago.

Blue entered with extreme caution as not to awaken anything, "This place may be a sight to see, but it's still filled with demons and darkness". Red entered with a shrill amount of energy that startled Blue. "Do you mind!? You scared the living hell out of me!".

"_I suppose bickering is quite normal with this particular group of people,_" Link thought to himself. He simply went straight forward and as he progressed on towards the towering structure, the serene and beautiful garden soon began to resemble that of a gloomy and dark, swampy marsh. Soon, he couldn't even recognize that this place was the same place. "What happened?" Link said, distraughtly.

"Ugly, isn't it?" Blue said in a snide manner. "That's whenever you praise an ugly worm infested hive just because it 'looks' all pretty on the inside".

Red's enthusiasm soon dwindled into, "This place gives me the creeps". Not much longer, the place was demented and demonic, the color faded from the trees, ornamental grasses, flowers and soil into a dreary sepia color.

"Why is the color fading? I've never seen anything like this in my life...," Link wondered. He attempted to pick a daisy, but touching it made the flower transform all the flowers into raging Deku Babas.

Blue was noticeably getting very irritated at Link's curiosity, "You know, you don't have to inspect every damn thing," he cursed Link. He slashed all the Babas in one part of the garden and Red, Vio, and Link went for all the others.

Vio had absolutely no sympathy for Link, anymore, "This is starting to become ridiculous. You need to learn how to control yourself, what would happen if those flowers spouted poisonous gas and killed all of us?" Vio had a clear point.

"I-I'm sorry," Link apologized. "I ju-," Link was cut off by Vio.

"Sorry doesn't do anything, how about you just fix it?" Vio suggested, bluntly. "Come on, let's get this over with; we can't just waist all our time redirecting you". Vio went on further. The garden portion seemed to be the majority of the Temple, it had been well over a kilometer and the garden seemed to be expanding rapidly.

"_Why aren't we any closer?_" Link thought to himself. "_Ugh, this is going to take forever, won't it?_". He reluctantly resisted the urge to bust out, whining so that he could go back home and resume his life of being a normal tree elf.

As Link was mindlessly venturing on, he didn't notice that a Possessed Tree had spawned, "Watch out!" Red dashed and slashed the Tree into pieces, they fell and one piece hit Link on the head.

"Ouch!" Link held his head. However, he didn't want to further irritate his brethren. So he continued walking as he inevitably complained about his head hurting.

Blue couldn't take Link's complaining and lamenting anymore, "Why don't you wait here? You've been nothing but a handful ever since we picked your sorry ass up from that portal! You have a _long_ way to go before you start earning some respect for a change. You can't be an aimless blubbering baby forever". Blue walked on, "If you die, it isn't my problem any longer".

Vio eyed Link, "I'm sorry, Link. I will take no liability if something happens to you," he ventured on.

Blue continued to spout slander, "You're worse than Red was. In fact, you're a lot worse!" he was already several decimeters away by then.

Link sat there on the wet ground, observing the colorless, moon like atmosphere, "Just what did I do to deserve this?". He hung his head in guilt. "Moreover, just what the hell am I going to do to fix it? I've been nothing but a nuisance; why even include me if I'm just a placeholder?".

* * *

"Weren't you a little harsh with Link?" Red asked. "I know I'm being sympathetic, but he's just a kid." Red mused, "_Kinda cute if you ask me,_" with that, Vio smacked Red over the head.

"You know you shouldn't think that about Link," he said. Vio could see why Red was like that towards Link, "He needs to learn how to act more maturely and it won't help if you muse like that". He disregarded the conversation, "It's getting nasty out here, we're getting very close". He closed his eyes, "Stop. Just stop, I can feel a bunch of monsters near here". He unsheathed his sword, "Do you all feel it, too?" he asked the two of them.

"I don't," Red debunked the situation, but unsheathed his sword for any surprise encounters. Despite not suspending his disbelief for Vio, he did start feeling unsure about venturing forward after walking a little more. Even Blue was feeling it.

"I get your point," Blue submitted. "What do think it is?".

"I dunno," Vio said. "_Was it Link? Surely not; I don't feel guilt. It's definitely the darkness trying to overtake my body_".

"I don't quite think that it's guilt," Blue said. "Just look ahead of you, have you ever seen so many oddly placed shadows before?" Blue knew that he was catching onto something. "I wouldn't dismiss that, if I were you. Surely, this place is going to awaken soon with monsters everywhere".

"I don't like where this is going," Red said, in a scared tone. "I really don't like where this is going". He proceeded in an even more cautious manner, this especially scared the two of them seeing as how Red was preset to upbeat and happy all the time.

They all could tell that there was something evil coming.

After seemingly forever, the three of them finally reached the tower, itself. The three of them were incredibly exhausted mainly from the sheer amounts of fear and suspicion that this temple induced. Red especially, was taking his toll from the fear that was induced. To the point where he could hardly move without shaking; as it was before, Red's amount of fear and the act of being unsure of himself merely amplified onto the others.

Blue had gone from snide to paranoid and Vio went from being pragmatic to being quite floundering and indecisive as if every nit picking decision depended whether he would wake up tomorrow. For their disposition of going to the Forest Temple had went from something that could be looked at as being a chore dwindled into something that they were unsure that they could handle or not. However, they weren't willing to accept that it was Link's indetermination and self ruination that had reflected its energy onto the Four Sword.

If they didn't have the power of confidence, the power of the blade would no longer have any effect over anything that dwell in the temple. Erie was the fact that nothing was ever showing itself, the mere suspense that was built over the fact that Link wasn't there to provide the power that it takes to overcome the dreary and surreal feeling that the Temple induced.

As they were barely managing a leisurely crawl, they had managed to get fairly high in the tower. It had gotten to the point that every floor of the tower seemingly sliced their power in half until there existed nothing that they could do. Red was suffering twice as much as Blue and Vio, "I think we made a mistake whenever we decided to leave Link for dead".

Blue hated agreeing with Red's compassion for Link, "I'd hate to agree, but that bastard gave us our strength... somehow". He recognized that Vio's patience had begun to dwindle down into an impatience and snideness.

"This is no time to joke," Vio said, weakly. He crawled towards blue, tugging at his leg, "I need Link's power... I'm dying," he flushed in weakness. Blue had flushed equally as much as he had never seen Vio at such a state of neediness. For he was usually the one to provide for the rest of them.

Blue shivered; soon enough Blue, the strongest one out of the group collapsed onto the ground fiercely. The force and shock that struck the ground should have been more than enough to knock the power to the ground and render it impossible to destroy the crystal that hung so high above them. "I can't do this anymore," he shuddered, his face turning red from the force that it took for him to speak. "The air is getting heavier," he trembled. "I'm sorry, Link! Just don't kill... me!" he managed to shout.

"It's... useless...," Vio struggled to say. "We're going to perish, we may as well just let fate handle things". The mentioning of the word "fate" filled Blue with an unearthly rage that not even Vio has ever seen or conceived before. It was as if he was filled with the rage and hatred of 1000 demons' souls.

Blue struggled up, "I'm going to get that damned crystal if it kills me!" he said, almost speed walking up the ladder. "_Am I being filled with the power of Link? Am I being assisted by the souls that live in this temple? Are the Goddesses empowering me with the strength to overcome this painful force?_" before he even knew it, he was already several stories above the two of them. "But I can't let them die! Dammit!" he tried to turn back to assist his friends, but to no avail. It was as if his body was on auto pilot, following the commands of another host.

Red and Vio were at a loss of words as to just how Blue managed to gather all of the strength that had been gathered. But they didn't care, as long as the destruction and decimation of the crystal would grant them the ability to walk regularly again. Even at that, the vile crystal would be destroyed and all of the trapped spirits would be set free from this hell of a Forest Temple.|

Before they knew it, Blue was on the top of the temple, he saw the giant of a crystal. It was much bigger than he was, and probably more durable. But it wouldn't stop him from at least, trying to destroy it, he took a swung and nothing happened. He continued sweeping the razor sharp blade at the pedestal where the crystal was held upward. Soon, Blue found himself not being able to move anymore. His ability to control his own body dissipated into the same force that enabled him to scale the tower.

The same force made Blue shoot up high in the air and make a giant slice through the crystal. The blow that blue had made was so monstrously forceful that it shattered the darkened crystal into two whole pieces. Perfectly symmetrical where he had sliced, he saw the crystal fall and crash towards the shrinking, hideous garden.

He saw the darkened and demonic part of the Forest Temple tumble to the ground in ruins. The crystal made storming and rumbling sounds that echoed across the far faces of the world. For that moment, the world seemed to remain silent save for the noise that the dark crystal made.

"_It's much different than I've read in many different prophecies that Atsuko made me read,_" Link thought to himself.

Before they knew it, they were able to walk perfectly without the weight of the crystal's force weighing them down. The Forest Temple was once again, vibrant with mainly green followed by many other colors that encircled the Temple's extensive garden.

"Come on, let's get the hell out of here," Blue said, still shuddering from that absolutely traumatically unbelievable event. "_Was that Link? Was that really Link?_". He still couldn't understand how Link's power amounted to such inhuman and godlike strength. A seemingly whiny, typical 6 year old was worlds more powerful than him.

"Don't hurt yourself thinking about it," Vio warned Blue. "You've already hurt many other parts of you; you seriously need to rest. We bought ourselves another day, it should be spent relaxing and rejuvenating".

* * *

Whenever they reached Link, not nearly as much of a grueling time was spent getting there. It was more of a leisurely walk through the garden.

"How? How did you do it?" Blue asked, astonished at Link.

Link shrugged, "I guess I have strong magical abilities," he said. "I came through to help you because I felt that you had finally fell to the ground. I couldn't let that happen to anyone. Also, I wanted to prove just how powerful I am".

Blue's jaw dropped at this child's supernatural seeming power. "_Is this kid even elf like? No, it's impossible. There's no way that he could possibly be this strong as an elf, he has the strength of a God. But there's no way this little whiny-,_" Link cut Blue off in mid thought.

"Aren't we going to progress on?" Link asked. "Isn't that how a quest works?".

Blue digressed from his thoughts, "Yeah, let's just... go," he said.


	2. Bed of Fire

It had been a day since that sequence of events, the four of them were still weary and unsure if they could handle the immense difficulty spike of the Temples. Vio had determined that there may be more than three temples that are existent in this world; not even in that realm. He told them, "Temples don't necessarily have to be in the same realm, they can be in up to three or four realms at a time," he directed his comment towards everyone. "Sometimes the said temple can be in all of the possible and conceivable realms, but never in any realm that isn't active through connecting to the last".

Red's back was still sore from the pressure that was put forth on it, so he couldn't really speak that well. For some reason, Red being in pain particularly disturbed Link in the sense that he didn't deserve such mistreatment. "I- don't think that I could handle that," he managed to whine.

Vio looked at Red as usual, with no sense of expression of emotion present in his face, "It's okay. Even if we're all unable to move, we can still put Link's phenomenally strong magical abilities to use". Vio then looked at Link, "I apologize profusely for making you the front man whenever you don't have much experience in the ways of the sword, but our powers come from the source of the blade: and that's you". It sort of bugged one side of Link in the sense that he would have to provide for everyone whenever he could barely provide for himself.

Red strained to apologize to Link for being so needy, "I'm sorry we're so needy, but it was the way that fate wanted it... Rydia".

"Rydia?" Link asked. "Who's Rydia?".

"The Goddess of the stars," Vio explained. "She protects the cosmos and along with it, fate itself. I'm not surprised that you've never heard of that Goddess, it is often disregarded in many translations of the Book of Mudora. Her Triforce is considered to be Majora's Triforce, rumored to be the Triforce of evil in Mudora's context. The original translation is much different than many of the translations that are out there".

Link wondered if Atsuko had a copy of the original book. Either way, it didn't mean anything until he is sure that he could return to the home that he has known most of his life. "_I'm not sure if you're listening, but I miss you,_" Link whispered to himself. "I guess we should begin leaving soon, I don't want to waste any time. Or any more, at that".

With that; Link, Red, Blue, and Vio left the Inn and made a rush out of the small village of Kakariko. They were going to head straight back to Death Mountain, where they would meet much different challenges up ahead. For little did they know that new challenges would await them and the dark energy that was embedded within the crystal of Darunia would sap them of any power and willingness.

* * *

Whenever they reached the entrance to the cave, each of them were equally sweaty and nervous from both the heat and the fact they had now entered new ground. What none of them knew that this ground is much more foreign than they would have ever knew.

"Let's just enter. They surely won't do their worst upon entrance," Vio reassured them. He was the first to step into the door that acted as an entrance to the darkness. Vio hadn't even realized just how dark it was, Vio was scared to death of the darkness. But he tried to disguise his fear with no emotional expression.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Blue asked him. "You look like you've been smothered to ashes".

Link eyed Blue's, "That's a little morbid, isn't it?". Link ignored Blue and was the second to enter, "See, it's not so bad".

"So you think that your better than I am because you take me for a fool?" Blue spat at him. "Move out of the way," Blue was the third to enter. He stepped into the overwhelming darkness, "_It's darker than it looks in here, I'll have to get some torches_". Blue was reminded of how scared Red and Vio were of the dark, "It's damn dark in here, why don't we get torches?". Blue looked away from Link as Blue was leaving himself wide open for teasing and taunting.

Link was relieved that someone was able to say that, "That's why I packed these torches, I was worried that someone would try to make fun of me for being _scared of the dark_ or something," he reached into his leather backpack and pulled out four torches and lit his first and the fire was distributed amongst the rest of them. The torches however, didn't help the darkness; it was as if the torches weren't even lit. "_This is kinda creepy,_" Link cringed.

Red, who after entering was very afraid of the dark. Vio was paralyzed with fear and Blue was insecure about not knowing whatever could crawl all over him. "What if we're taken by surprise? This is ridiculous," Blue complained. He was trying to disguise his fear with anger and frustration, "Are you sure that these torches even work?".

"Don't point at Link for all the problems that happen, he's not your scapegoat," Vio defended Link. "_Seriously, why aren't these torches working?!_" Vio was even more intimidated at the darkness than the rest of them. It was the most emotion that the three had even saw out of the otherwise expressionless Vio.

Link tried to peer around and navigate the little bits and pieces of the warm cave. Red gripped Link's hand tightly as Vio and Blue did the same. As much as Blue was above this, it was his only hope of getting out of this awful temple was to hold Vio's hand.

As they had ventured three or so meters in the Temple, the darkness had completely gone. Link couldn't step another foot forward without going off of sheer instinct, he didn't know if he would escape this place. "I hate to be the one to say this, but I can't venture any farther. Any light that I can see has completely gone". All but Red, felt the same thing. Link felt Red's hand grip loosen, "Red, what're you doing?".

Red gave a cheery smile, more usual behavior as opposed to his newfound fear, "I can see better, I feel like my eyes are adjusting to the darkness. I can see all the way passed through the cave, it's like a spiral". Normally, they wouldn't have believed Red or told him that it wasn't some sort of game. But Red was their only hope, "I don't know what the rest of you are talking about," for Red hadn't realized that his eye sight in the darkness was so much more absolute than the rest of them. But he disregarded his ability.

"_Thank the divine that someone can see, and that the one who can see is afraid of the dark,_" Blue thanked the Gods. There was little that could possibly happen to make it more convenient. Blue didn't have the patience to deal with a scared Red. He could even feel his vision clear up a little, he had no idea how any aspect of the cosmos worked whenever it came to darkness. If anything, it was directly related to anything that he read from The Book of Mudora.

Red remained cheery, but also tried not to loose the grip of the other three. His sweaty hands didn't help the fact that it was hard to keep the grip between Link and the others. His cheery disposition faded as he saw that the next spiral to the hallway abruptly cut off whenever he found that the next section was filled with giant spiders, Red felt as if he lost all strength to fight those infernal creatures. "I'm scared!".

Link trembled at Red's shrill voice, "What? What is it?" he instantly let go of Vio's hand and had his blade ready. "I don't give a damn if I can't see anything. Whatever they are, I can sure hear them". He slowly stepped towards the spiders and tried to hear out their position as well as Red's. Scared that he may take the head of Red, he told him to keep well out of his way. Red trembled the whole time while Link felt as if he had been carrying giant blocks of lead for days straight, the blade wobbled in his hand as he struck the bastard spiders with spikes of cooled stone.

Red and the others felt the Temple cool down considerably. "_Link can control the temperature around here?_" Blue wondered. "_Well I wonder what took him so long,_" he grumbled.

"That's the last of them, they were probably spiders," Link said, he felt their sharp stinging sensation that only a spider would be able to emulate. Red yelped at the thought of how ugly their enlarged faces were and how treacherous they looked, the heat was making him crazy.

Link could finally tell where Red was, he knelt down to Red's level and said, "It's okay, we- I mean I killed them," he said, redirecting a sour disposition at Blue and Vio whom he didn't even know where they were or what they were doing. To Link's surprise, he didn't hear a snide remark out of Blue. Not even as much of a peep out of him, "_You aren't as tough as you used to be, now are you?_" Link thought to himself. As for Vio, he felt concern for his wellbeing; he was trembling in fear. It scared him even more that the Forest Temple wasn't quite enough to put emotion in his emotionless disposition, but the cave had practically paralyzed the poor child with fear and suffering.

Red had discovered something, "A door! Look- wait, never mind. Just follow me!" he squeaked cheerily as he lead the four to a metal door that was rusted shut due centuries of being untouched. Red tugged at the door, the door just stood still and hardly made a creaking sound.

Link could tell that Red wouldn't be able to open the door, "Here, I'll open it for you," he felt around until he met with Red, he was grateful that the others couldn't see the immense flush of velvet red on his face. Link was feeling and searching through his body to find the door. Instinctively, Red shoved Link off of his body and towards the door; effectively getting Link off of his body. Link knew what was happening, "Sorry," Link told Red. He tugged at the door and it flung wide open and even knocked some sediment off of the walls.

* * *

As Link and the other three had finally managed to find their way out of the cave, Link specifically had lost his rationality. For he thought that he would never be able to escape that horrid place. As Link crawled his way out of the door, the weather being about 30 degrees celsius was ice cold compared to the cave being 43 degrees celsius. Besides the fact that Link pretended to care only about escaping the cave, he was also terrified that they may be dangerously close to lava.

"Finally! We're out of the bowels of that wretched cave!" Link yelled. The cool breeze that rushed through his tunic felt very nice, but his feet felt as if they had been burnt to a crisp. For they were terribly sore and absolutely uncomfortable to walk on. The pain and burning traveled up his legs wherever the boots covered. The clothes that he was wearing were terribly unfit for such hot weather and more well suited for a bitter autumn instead of a well heated summer.

The rest of them had an itching and burning sensation where various fabrics and leathers that covered them. They had all agreed that these clothes were absolutely not well suited at all for these conditions, so they had to decide what to do and where to do it.

Red panted, he was stripped down to his undergarments, every inch of his body was almost as red as his tunic. Worse so, Red had terribly sensetive skin making the pain of burning skin over twice as painful as it would normally. His feet and legs were the worst damaged of all his body, they were bruised and blistered a striking red, almost as red as his tunic; that pulsated along with the sun that beat down on him mercilessly.

Blue had his shirt off, and was currently in the process of trying to remove his boots without irritating his skin. Revealing completely unharmed ivory skin, he threw his hat down on the ground and shook the sweat off of his hair, "Yep, that was part of the Cave of no Return".

"I guess we all know where the cave got its name from," Link said wiping the sweat off of his forehead.

Vio hadn't been injured as bad, for he had a very strong resistance to fire and heat, "I think you all should wait here. I'll rgo alone, I'm much better equiped". Much like a doctor would, he examined Red and concluded, "Red has been damaged the most and Link is still pretty damaged from the heat. If you're not in too much pain, I want you, Link to watch over Red". He directed his glance at Blue, "You seem to not be as affected by the heat. Come with me, I'll still need assistance". He directe his attention back at Link and Red, "You two look as if you're in risk of getting infections on your wounds, try to find a place where bacteria can't eat away at your skin". He walked on with Blue, leaving Red and Link to watch over each other. Seeing as how Red was too wounded to guarentee consciousness, he knew that Link was very hospitable and he would take good care of Red.

Link looked around and checked to see if the two of them were gone, he then looked at Red's bruised and burnt body. Stripped down to his undergarments, he could see where exactly the fire had hit him. It looked as if Red was on the virge of tears, and it tore a hole in Link's heart to see such an innocent child in pain. Link felt choked up himself at the sight of it, he couldn't even hold Red close by him in fear of inflicting more pain on him. Link tried to get back up but it burned too much, "Red, we need to find a cave. Something to get out of the sun, anything". He crawled towards Red, and forced a smile to at least come off as pleasant.

Red reached his arms out to Link, in need, "Please... hold me close... please...," he said, with a weakened shudder in his voice. "Please...".

Link nodded and crawled closer to Red, "I'm here to take care of you, I'll do anything to make sure you get better". Red clutched onto Link, his hands twitched with pain. However, Red's pain had seemed to completely subside. It was like he was using Link as a power source to heal himself, his face was incredibly serene as his embrace had calmed and Link had felt the comfort that Red's mysterious _power_ had emitted. Link's embrace grew with strength as they clutched each other, slowly growing less pained. The mysterious power, growing stronger and stronger.

Red's wounds were much less irritated, he had procured and recovered some of the hearty cheeriness that he had started off with. He stood up, and gave Link a smile, "Feel better now?".

Link was at an absolute loss of words as to just where Red had gotten that power, "What was that?".

"It was the power of love and trust," Red said, and giggled at Link's confused expression. "I have healing powers that my master taught me before I went on to this soul".

"What do you mean by that? Did your master teach you white magic in a past life?" Link was curious. He had always questioned the existence of magic even whenever he lived with two people who had constantly displayed living proof of its existence.

Red smiled at Link's display of interest, his face lit back up and he had returned back into his once usual cheery disposition. "It's sort of like white magic, but it's something that I was taught how to do in case I was at risk of dying in another life. I couldn't do it in the dark because I needed the energy of another person and I didn't know if you had the courage to hug me in front of everyone even in the total darkness".

Link smirked, "I would have hugged you regardless had I known that you had the ability to heal like that".

Red shook his head, "The embrace has to be completely mutual to have any chance of working, and I know that you wouldn't have been able to make it as mutual. Unfortunately, this spell has a cost," Red said. Red had put his clothes back on save for his boots and socks due to the radiant heat that still emanated from the hot cave.

Link's heart sunk in both concern and worry on behalf of Red's wellbeing. "What is the... cost?".

"I won't be able to cast the spell in this life unless the bond between the host and I is stronger than just an embrace," Red said. "However, my master has tried to teach me white magic. But I can't seem to get it to work".

"What do you mean by a stronger bond?" Link asked. "_I sure hope this isn't too great of a cost, but I feared Red's death whenever I saw his wounds_".

"We're just friends, but now that the spell has been cast in this life. It would take true love between two of relative composition to ensure that it would even be possible to cast the spell," Red said. He thought of how he had tired his attempts at white magic and knew that Link was already at a fragile state, he didn't want to worry him, "If ever I learn how to use white magic, I could serve more of a purpose. I'm sorry that I'm as useful as the rest of you".

Link sat up, and Red still lied down on the ground, "You're just as useful as the rest of them, that spell saved our lives. I don't care if you cannot cast it as well, I still l-" Link paused, his face filled with deep red quickly and he covered his nose. "_What the hell have I done?!_" Link's mind was racing, he didn't even care what Red thought as of that moment. That was more embarrassing than the time whenever Link went swimming and his shorts had been ripped off, more humiliating than the recollection of Link having to walk home completely naked. Avoiding eye contact with every one of the Kokiri children. He may have been only 5 years of age, but even at the age of 10 he remembered the humiliation. Nothing else was more embarrassing.

"You... still...?" Red asked, for he was clueless as to what Link was trying to say. "...what were you going to say? Did you forget what you were going to say?".

"...It's not what you think," Link finally said. "That was completely uncalled for and I apologize, I just think of you as a brother. We watch over each other". Link was relieved that Red didn't have the slightest clue as to what Link was going to say, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Red had soon somewhat caught on to what Link was embarrassed and devastated, he began giggling. "I know what you were trying to say," he stopped laughing at Link, but found it hard to cease laughing at him. He gave a sincere smile, "I love you too, Link," Red had gotten up and gave Link an honest hug. "...as I loved my brother, before we lost connection to each other".

Link decided to take it for what it was, he didn't want to make Red mourn the loss of his brother. But he didn't know that his brother had been lost just as Link had lost all connection to Atsuko and Shinra. He knew that Red had dearly missed his brother, he began to feel the same pain. "I know the pain of your loss," Red had embraced Link more. "I lost my dear friends: Atsuko and Shinra, they were like parents to me," he knew that he was in dangerous territory on the subject of loss. "I know we shouldn't dwell on things like this, but I can't stop thinking about it," to Link's surprise, Red hadn't started balling his eyes out. However, he could still feel the sorrow that radiated from him.

* * *

Meanwhile, Blue and Vio were going nowhere. They had traversed many of the paths of Death Mountain, not finding any trace of any tower. As of three or four hours of endless dead ends, they were just about convinced that the tower was either underground or simply nonexistent.

"I don't understand," Blue shook his head. He looked over the peak of the mountain, on the summit. He looked down at the lava and the little islands of hardened rock in the ocean of magma. Blue turned his head, facing Vio, "I think we should go back. We're finding absolutely no trace of the tower, I'm convinced that damned temple doesn't even exist".

Vio examined the Summit, "Maybe the Temple is just passed the Summit. We'd have to find our way to the summit, I've heard that the Fire Temple was initially somewhere in the summit. But I will warn you to dress lightly for the Temple, it's also said that the temperatures are hot enough to blister skin. I'm guessing that the temperatures are about that of that piece of the Cave of No Return?".

Blue cringed at the thought of walking in those miserable temperatures, the last thing that any of them wanted was to shove themselves back into those muffled and heated conditions. "Surely we don't have to go through that again".

"I'd be more worried about Link and Red, we'll have to check them to see if they're even alive. Seeing as how badly they were wounded and blistered, I seriously doubt anyone could live through it," Vio didn't want to check up on Red and Link.

Blue's heart sunk at the thought of Red and Link being dead, "Surely they're not dead. If Link is a sorcerer, then he probably healed each other. I doubt that such a thing would happen if anyone had the power to fix it". Blue knew however, that going back for Red and Link would be inevitable as the Four of them were needed to either find the Temple or make the Temple appear. "_Didn't Red learn white magic in a passed life? I sure hope, we'll need it_".

Vio just then noticed something that should have been obvious, "have you ever noticed that door down there? Doesn't it look like the exit to the cave?".

Blue simply dismissed it, "I thought that it was. But I guess it isn't, it wouldn't make sense. We would have already seen Red and Link," Blue was beginning to get very dehydrated. He knew that they would have to find water and soon.

Blue and Vio still agreed to backtrack and bring Red and Link to ensure their safety, even if they had to carry them there.

"_I sure hope they're okay,_" Blue thought to himself. "We can't afford to lose them," he said.

* * *

Vio and Blue had finally gotten to Red and Link who were sleeping under a rock shelf that hung over the mountain, it was big enough to accommodate the four of them. The shade was much cooler and closer to room temperature than the outside was, it would make a nice resting area. The four of them needed it; but it seemed as though Red and Link were a lot better than they were before. The assumption to Vio and Blue was that Link healed himself and Red.

"That seems like a good idea," Blue said. "It will be easier to traverse the open land in the night time," he studied the position of the sun, "It's about noon, we can get about 8 or so hours of sleep before the temperature goes down".

"As much as that seems like a good idea, we would have also wasted 8 hours of time whenever we must recover the crystal of power as soon as possible. The best idea is to get this done as soon as possible," Vio dismissed Blue's plan of action immediately. It wouldn't be a good idea to even sleep that long. "Come on, Blue. I've got Link, you pick up Red. From the looks of it, his blisters aren't as irritated. Put his boots in your satchel, the worst thing that you could possibly do is walk around these hot caves barefoot".

Blue had taken Red's boots and put them in his satchel as Vio had ordered, and lifted up Red while he was sleeping. He didn't like the idea of carrying a child almost his age and 3/4's his size as he was dreadfully tired. However, Red's serene state absolutely excused everything; if only for the fact that how calm he was in Blue's arms almost calmed him down and relaxed his tense muscles and somehow gathered strength in his arms to support him. In fact, Blue wouldn't mind carrying Red a little longer just to leech the strength that he gave him. "_Maybe this is the magic that Red possesses? Is this the magic that his master taught him?_".

Vio was beginning to get tired of walking through barren rock. "_Should I be glad that their are no monsters to slay? Or should I be irritated that there are no abstractions from this dull, dry and dusty wasteland?_". Vio was getting very thirsty, it was said that the Death Mountain has a waterfall on the east most side from the Zora's river.

"I say that we should go east most to the Zora's waterfall if we want to have any chance of living through this," Blue said, as if he had read Vio's mind. Blue's mouth was getting very salty and dry as he hadn't drank any water since they had left the Inn a while ago.

* * *

Before Red was given the flesh of the Hero, he was a regular boy in the small village of Ruto. His name was Sakaeru, he was the smallest out of the other six children of the village; for the village was very small and undeveloped at the time and the entire population consisted of seven families. He had mid length light brown hair and striking blue eyes. He lived with his master, Chie. She was a woman that looked about 24 years of age, but was actually 45. She was the long descendant of the Tree elvish people who migrated through the villages. Long ago, she had taught Sakaeru the spell of youth. He looked as if he couldn't have been any older than 5 years old, but he was 15 years of age. There was even a time whenever the village thought that Sakaeru was a Kokiri child.

They had lived together ever since his parents had died from the plague, he had been left to die at Chie's door because she was the only mage who knew how to alter genetic and inflicted diseases using magic and meditation. For this cause, Chie was the town healer; she was famous throughout the villages and some other villages for reversing the effects of cancer and even growing another arm and leg on an amputee.

Chie had taught Sakaeru to perform many types of magic, but he had practically invented his own form of magic from various different types of White Magic and Sorcery. He had also used meditation to amplify the effects of his magic, he had no name for the magic because he thought that it was white magic. One day, he had saw a man on the street that had been mangled and cut and whipped by a corrupt assassin, Sakaeru had hugged the man until the hug was completely mutual and the man's cuts and broken bones had completely healed. Chie had never seen such a strange magic in her life, to her it seemed like Red from the Four Divisions of Link. It was a concept novel written by one of the wise men from Rauru to show the surprisingly accurate predictions of what should happen if certain events of certain prophecies were rejected. She wondered if he would go on to be the 2nd division of the Hero of Time.

* * *

Early in the morning of his final day, Sakaeru had awoken to knights marching in from Royal Hyrule and the Castle Town. They were looking for the sorcerer with the strange magic abilities. They wanted to put his and Chie's skills to work for selfish agenda, they wanted them to double the power of their soldiers so they can dominate the far eastern Kingdom of Gannondorf and name it the Eastern Kingdom of Hyrule. The town had become too small to house the ten thousands of families that lived their, since then the Town became a city with an Eastern, Western and Central sprawl. The ten thousands of rich families soon grew to hundreds of thousands of families that were in danger of losing their status.

For they knew that if they would be able to give regular Hylian men such extraordinary powers, they would send the bastard empire of Gannon into dirt and rubble. The Gerudo Women commoners would be their slaves and aristocrats would to co dominate the eastern kingdom of Hyrule.

Once Sakaeru had heard what they wanted, he didn't want to have anything to do with such selfish and ruthless agenda. But it was written in prophecy that if Sakaeru didn't comply with the Kingdom's selfish agenda, he would be separated from his beloved brother. However, he knew little about him and could only communicate in the afterlife. For he had died whenever he was still an infant.

Sakaeru and Chie both knew a very limited amount of information about the prophecy and they both agreed that the wellbeing of the Gerudo was worth more than his brother. Sakaeru just shrugged the threat as idle. Chie had told Sakaeru that the soldiers had threatened to separate her from Atsuko, but they are still connected just as if they were one entity. That it wouldn't take too much more concentration to keep connection with his brother and even if he were reincarnated, he would still be connected to him.

"I won't give power to you so you can kill innocent people," Sakaeru rejected. The soldier laughed at Sakaeru.

"...And what would guarantee that I won't just take my physical power to force you to do my bidding?" the soldier threatened. He planned to bribe them, he reached into his satchel and pulled out several impeccable platinum rupees, "The rupees that I hold in my hand are worth more than any aristocrat in the Royal congregation of Hyrule would make in ten lifetimes. If you work and cooperate with us by granting the power to at least five of our soldiers, all of these rupees will belong to you and Chie and even more. I will make damned sure that this town doesn't suffer anymore".

"Who's to judge the welfare of this town is in poor condition, Chie and I are the most skilled Mages in the town as well as most of the entire world," Sakaeru boasted. He childishly pointed his nose in an opposing direction to the soldier. Chie glared at the soldier and was about to strike at any second.

"You are correct. In fact, we've been to every town to observe the skill levels of all the Mages and Sorcerers in the entire Hylian Kingdom and you two are by far the most skilled that we've ever seen. Your skill levels as mages surpasses even that of all the royal clergy who received lessons from the past most skilled magicians in the world". The soldier had remained very calm as it became evident that the soldier wasn't going to fight them. He knew that he could very well die trying to abduct Chie and Sakaeru from the village and to Royal Hyrule. "I'm not going to draw the blood of a mage, for I'm not naive enough to exhaust my strength to the two most skilled white mages".

"Then you should lie down your attempt to abduct Sakaeru and I and take it to the grave," Chie said, her brow filled with anger. "I will not power your soldiers for tyrannic and imperial reasons," she motioned to close the door, but hesitated. "_But all those rupees... what am I thinking?!_" she completely slammed the door. "Don't you bastards ever return! Go away!".

The soldier gave a sinister laugh at Chie's denial, "You've given me no other choices. Burn the fuckers! Burn the whole village!" the soldiers had stepped back and Black mages had cast a tempest spell that sent Ruto into flames and even drew fire to the water falls.

Sakaeru had cast a protection spell to the area of Ruto, the fires had rested atop the village but yielded no effect on anyone or anything. The villagers however, still panicked with overbearing fear and tried to riot and scare the mages and soldiers away. Sakaeru strengthened the spell and the fires had been put out; with that, the mages cast a stronger fire in attempt to collectively override Sakaeru's spell.

To no avail, the soldiers had tried to rampage and tried to stampede the town down. Attempting to ruthlessly decapitate the villagers was like trying to harm a hologram, attempting to strike the village down was no more effective. After under five minutes of trying to raise fear in the villagers enough to kick Chie and Sakaeru out of the village. The attempt was in vein.

The soldier yelled and barked commands to the soldiers to stop, eventually the soldiers, mercenaries, cavaliers, and mages stopped and returned to formation.

* * *

The wise man had walked to Chie's house and knocked at the door. Chie had cracked the door open with a ball of kinetic energy that was collected and concentrated enough to kill an ork with a simple touch.

The wise man spoke with a calm voice that also spoke with assertiveness, "I am not here to harm. I have but a simple message to your child, Sakaeru".

Chie had calmed down and opened the door, "What message?" Sakaeru had directly walked in front of Chie.

"Sakaeru, it has come time for you to awaken as the 2nd division of the Hero of Time. We have little time, Chie," he warned. "Please, if you will follow me". He motioned for Chie and Sakaeru to walk out of the house. "Worry not, the Soldiers, Mages, and Cavalry cannot much more than look at the contents of your house. They cannot even touch the house".

"I'm well aware, there are more important things. Sakaeru, follow the wise man," Chie told Sakaeru. Sakaeru followed immediately behind the wise man until they had reached his house. Upon the entrance of the house, Sakaeru had lost consciousness. Chie knew what was going to happen, she remained calm and static as Sakaeru's essence slowly was sucked into a ball of light, a portal to the realm of the Four Sword and to the Temple of the Four Sword.

"There have been many other Reds as well as Vios and Blues, Sakaeru shows the telltale signs of being the next incarnation of Red: The 2nd Division of Link," he explained to Chie. "I'm sure you've realized that far before I've even read this prophecy, just 30 years ago," he laughed.

Chie smiled, "I knew he was going to do something great from the time that I looked into his eyes and to the time he is being sent to save Hyrule once again," she put a lot of faith into Sakaeru. She knew that he was very brave and willing.

"I trust you know that Sakaeru will return in a couple of centuries, approximately the era of The Four Swords. Since you're a tree elf, in elf years, you won't be much older than he is," the man gave another hearty chuckle as regular elves lived thousands of years and tree elves lived tens of thousands of years.

"I know that Sakaeru will still be my innocent child even after 200 years," Chie said. She thanked him, "I want to give you my gratitude for doing this, I don't think that I would even have the strength to do that, myself. I'll surely miss him, Atsuko even tells me that her child Link, shows signs of being the Hero. The world is a small place, it is".

* * *

Red had recollected that event in his head, he knew that the body that he was given in Link's image had been occupied by Red a couple of other times. The body he was put into was somehow familiar, it was such a normal feeling besides the fact that his body had no resemblance to the body that he was given at birth.

They were at the east most side of Death Mountain, and Blue and Vio were resting there to gather the strength to move forward. After wandering that barren wasteland, they had decided to stock up on as much water as possible. From the other side of Death Mountain and the central part, it was a four hour walk without a bit of water in their bodies.

Red and Link were still sleeping, seeing as how Link was lazy to begin with, the two of them wouldn't awaken in at least 4-6 more hours. Blue and Vio decided to sleep as well, they knew that it would be very cold whenever the night came and it would be a little easier to traverse the giant mountain.

Red had awoken and Link soon after, it was dark and traces of twilight were present. They had seen how tired and worn out Blue and Vio were, Link had wondered why they were so tired. He also wondered what happened to his sword, boots, and shield. He went into Vio's satchel and recovered them, "_Why would my possessions be in Vio's satchel?_" Link wondered. "Why would they be so worn out?" Link was incredibly confused as to what happened and why he had discarded most of his clothes; it was far too cold for him to do such a thing. Link and Red shivered in the coldness of the mountain. It felt like it could start snowing at any moment.

He saw Red, who wasn't as cold as he was. He didn't even look the slightest bit cold in comparison to him. He reached into his satchel and grabbed a blanket and hugged his body in attempt to warm up so he wouldn't be cold that next morning.

"Are you cold?" Red asked. "It doesn't seem that cold to me," he walked up to Link and sat next to him.

"You said that you couldn't learn white magic before?" Link asked, out of nowhere. Red was as clueless as Link, but he made an attempt to try to answer his question.

"I had a dream of me awakening as the 2nd division of Link," Red replied. "I was apparently a widely renowned White Mage and lived with Chie, the lady who taught me various types of different magic". He had forgotten completely that he was so talented whenever it came to magic, the information was irrelevant as of then.

"I never knew that you knew Chie," Link said. "Atsuko used to go on and on about her sister, Chie. She said that they were connected telepathically, I never regarded the information". Several different memories of Atsuko telling Link about Chie had flooded his mind, he never knew that Atsuko had talked about her so much. Chie's probably hundreds of years old as of that current moment. "Was... I mean is Chie tree elven?".

Red nodded, "She always told me that tree elves had a life expectancy of more than ten thousand years, and that they hardly ever aged". Red then recalled whenever Chie had taught Red the spell of eternal youth, "_But why would Chie need the spell of eternal youth? Were all tree elves predominately magic users?_".

"Atsuko had always told me of the spell of eternal youth, but why would I ever want to be a kid forever? It seems to not be such a good idea to me. Besides, there are some things that I can't do as a kid like being taken seriously by an adult".

"I can tell that you lack respect by self righteous adults, but why wouldn't you want to be a kid forever? You could act childish and undeveloped as much as you would want or act like an adult but still not have to worry about adult related responsibilities?" Red asked. He could understand that Link doesn't want to remain in this weak state as a kid where his powers and rights are limited age wise.

"It just doesn't appeal to me," Link replied. From what Link has been told and also experienced, he has never really acted like a kid 100% of the time. "Plus, I've never acted like a kid the whole time, I was always told that I was very mindful and considerate especially for my age. I always hated when people said that because it assumes that children usually are irresponsible, inexperienced, incapable, doltish babies," Red laughed as Link said that.

"You do understand that children are stupid, inexperienced, and incapable babies, right?" Red explained to Link. Link always thought that the Kokiri children were notoriously undeveloped and sported a trait that no other child had.

"I never knew," Link admitted. "I just thought that the Kokiri children were just pathetically undeveloped, considering that I'm younger than all of them".

"The Kokiri children _are_ notorious for being immature and undeveloped because they are some the oldest beings to exist and yet they still act like they are 4 and 5 years old," Red stated. He looked up at the stars, "It's said to be an enigma as to how they survive with a magical tree guarding after them, and they still live to this day". He looked back at Link, "You've never seen a real child is all, and the chances are that there doesn't exist any real child for hundreds of kilometers from where you live. Chie says that Atsuko lives far into the outskirts of Hylian Imperial Territory and into the tree elvish territory, very close to the Kokiri Forest".

Link nodded, "Yeah, I ran away from the Kokiri Forest because I was tired of them. I was tired of being the only coherent one out of a bunch of immature apes". He knew that Red wouldn't be able to understand how Link would want to give up everything that he owns just to get away from the people that he doesn't like. The difference is that his village had six families or so with maybe six or seven children in all the village: mostly boys. The Kokiri Forest was filled with children, about 30 or 40 of them, 20 of which whom Link sees everyday in the forest.

Red gave a look of unsureness, "I guess I wouldn't know. I liked all the children I was surrounded by, but they all acted their fair share of ridiculous and incoherent. I just never let them get under my skin; but you've been around notoriously misbehaved children and 20 of them as opposed to 6 relatively behaved children". Red had admitted that he didn't understand the toughness of Link's life, it seemed like he had been pushed around since the days of his birth.

Link made a lighthearted chuckle, "My life doesn't suck _that_ much". He stopped shivering as his body had grown accustomed to the cold. "I don't look at my life as a personal hell. Just because my luck wasn't as good earlier on doesn't mean that I'm unhappy with my life".

Red and Link continued talking about various things until the morning came, most of which became half asleep and mindless rambling.

* * *

It was like a horrible nightmare. It seemed like it wasn't real, the crystal seemed to be a bleeding heart. It was filled with rage and darkness and glowed with the demonic eyes of Gannondorf. But it was a much different type of darkness, much different than the crystal in the Forest Temple; it was a raging flare but a serene glowing aura that bleed the tears of its ruin.

The morning had come and Red and Link weren't able to form any sort of conversation about six hours ago and were asleep. Blue and Vio would have to get them to walk on their own, not a week's worth of rest would give them the physical strength to carry them again.

Blue gave Red a shove that shook him awake, he was disoriented for a couple of minutes and got a grip, "What?". Even as he was oriented, he had almost no idea how he got there.

Vio had lightly tapped Link's forehead and his eyes opened wide and his pupils dilated. The two of them wondered how Vio was able to wake Link up like that, "It's a simple technique that involves transferring energy to the brain". They still had no idea as to how Vio was able to do that, even at Red's extraordinary abilities to alter the human body he still didn't understand. "We have to get leaving, I've got plenty of water to carry us through the outside portions of Death Mountain," Vio pointed to the volcano that stood in the middle of several mountain tops, "The summit is about a three or four hour walk, so make sure you're hydrated," he told everyone.

Red squinted and rubbed his eyes, "Where are we going? The Fire Temple?". He looked around, trying to adjust to the brilliant amounts of light that shone and reflected throughout the mountains bright and hot surface.

Vio adjusted the strap on his satchel, "We're going to the Bleeding Heart: the fire crystal. It is said that the crystal has been infected particular type of dark magic that makes it bleed a very blood like substance. The dark fire crystal resembles that of a heart and it rests just inside the heights of Death Mountain's summit. It cannot be defeated with the four sword, it can only be defeated using _white magic,_" he directed his glance towards Red. "I hope you're prepared, Red. Because we're going to go into the heart of darkness, not even the strength of a thousand sorcerers would be able to penetrate the darkness".

Red didn't like the idea of going into the darkness, "It.. won't be like it was in that cave passage?" he squeaked. "I won't ever go back into that darkness _ever,_" Red was scared of the overwhelming absence of light. Where light was recessive, Red's ability to heal or repair would be nearly diminished. "Besides, I'd have to use sorcery to even touch the crystal, and you _know_ that I can't use sorcery".

Vio directed his attention at Link, "Link, you are extraordinary at the practice of sorcery, are you not? Trained by Atsuko, well known for her ability to control hundreds of things at once with perfect sync".

Link was nervous, "I guess I can do it, but I haven't gotten any chance to practice it. If I knew that I would be destroying a bleeding heart submerged in the presence of darkness, I would have practiced more".

Vio shook his head, "Then you two will do everything in your ability to destroy the dark crystal of fire, it's more than twice as strong as the darkened crystal of the Forest Temple," he then directed his attention at Blue. "You're going to follow me through the path of the summit to defend Red and Link from the heat, they have shown lots of sensitivity to the heat," Blue nodded. Vio digressed and ordered the three of them to hurry up, "Time is the last thing that we have a lot off, let's get a move on. Red, I've got to talk to you personally; the rest of you move on without us," he put his hand on the child's shoulder. "I know you're nervous, but let me tell you something: did you know that you were the child Sakaeru of the village of Ruto? That you had such abilities of white magic, that you were able to heal a man bleeding to death just from a hug?".

Red nodded, "Yeah, I remember that life vividly, but-" Vio had cut him off.

"But nothing, you were so talented at what you were doing that the Royal Kingdom of Hyrule went to that particular commoners' village to pay you millions of rupees to service them. I know you can do it, I believe in you... but you need to believe in yourself".

Red tried to force a smile, "I'll try my best, but I'll need all of your help...," they hurried on to catch up with the rest of them.

* * *

Red and Vio caught up with Blue and Link debating, "...I could have probably taken Gannon down faster than you would!" Link challenged.

"Quit fighting!" Vio barked. The two of them shut up and walked silently for a while.

"We were just joking," Blue finally spoke up. He quoted the words of a famous Hylian military leader, "_A sense of humor is the best thing to have in dire conditions_".

Link playfully said, "You didn't quote it right!" he shoved Link back.

"Did I not just tell you to stop!?" Vio barked again. Vio realized that he was being harsh, "I'm sorry; I guess I'm just under a little stress. But I'm not the one who should be stressed". He finally stopped talking, "_At least their not at each others' throats, anymore,_" he thought to himself.

The path didn't seem to be nearly as long and grueling as the garden of the Forest Temple. Albeit, the scenery was very arid and bland, "This trip doesn't seem to be that long," Blue noticed. "We're getting close to the summit, it seems as if the path isn't nearly as long as the garden". The rest of them showed no remote interest in what Blue said.

Before they had even noticed, the summit hung above them, eerily. The mountain summit had a much different feel to it compared to the heights of the mountain trail with overhangs that towered over the giant trench. The summit was followed by a set of old, stone carved stairs. The summit had towered high over all of the other mountain tops that made up Death Mountain. When they reached the top of the mountain, they could see the giant forest that lie under the giant summit. The four of them stood at the little bit of stone that led to the top of the Summit, the other side of the summit was 500 meters away. The summit itself, was phenomenally huge.

"There's the heart of it all, the bleeding heart," Vio whispered. The heights of the summit were so quiet, that Vio's whispers echoed throughout the depths of the summit. All was completely silent, yet beaming with rumbles. The crystal was a sad pierced heart who's pulse bled out darkness in the absence of light, a blood red substance that shone an overwhelming lack of power. "You must... destroy the crystal... you both," Vio said. He could hear the calls of the crystal, trying to convey a message, "Destroy it".

Red and Link had no idea how to destroy the crystal. But they felt some power that flared in their veins, the power enraged Link and infuriated him and it made Red stronger and willing. They both felt the power pump through their heart and through their body and like the darkness that bled through the crystal, this peculiar and curious type of energy bled through them and they must let the power surge and bleed out like an artery.

They charged straight towards the crystal, oblivious to the fall, they plummeted straight towards the center of the summit and soon to be directly under the crystal. Directly under the crystal, they shot up in the air with a type of light, a flare of magic in Rydia's golden veil that flared straight towards the bleeding heart and the source of darkened power.

But the power wasn't enough, it wasn't enough to so much as crack a tiny crevice in the reddened crystal. It glowed and glimmered and pulsated with ruby colored irritation as the power started to thicken as a vein would when filled with blood, the gravity of the crystal seemed stronger than the earth's grip to Link and Red. They seemed to float in the midst of the thin air as they trembled with overwhelming pressure that dawned upon them. The darkness that surrounded them overwhelmed, dominated, and overpowered the little cracks of light that remained flowing out of them.

Link could hear Red crying in pain as he was being crushed by the immense amount of darkness. "_Red! No!_" Link reached his hand out to Red as he didn't have enough power to so much as blink. Link had outstretched his hands to Red and grasped his hand and squeezed himself forward, the absence of light was like a concrete wall where the light was a small piercing through the blackness. Through the blackness, he held Red who was crying and screaming as the essence of his strength and power was attacking and damaging the bleeding crystal, which bled out a thick darkness that toppled over them like gravel.

From the Summit, all the rest of them couldn't see through the darkness. The darkness was a thundering bolt of energy that consumed all surrounding sound and light, it deafened Red, Link, Blue, and Vio and effectively did away with effective communication. "_It's a black hole...,_" Red screamed, but his words hadn't echoed to Link's ears. "_Get away, I don't think that I'll make it,_" He screamed; but Link still couldn't hear Red. The Oxygen levels were doubling and tripling, Red's cries and screams were starting to become more and more audible. "_...Get out of here, you'll die if you don't leave,_" Link could begin hearing Red's pleas for Link to leave.

In their moment of vulnerability, Link and Red had given the crystal all of the energy that they could've given. All the energy that they had, it burned and hurt them. The pain was the stinging and flaring, pounding pain of a broken neck.

Soon enough, they could feel the darkness thinning and thinning and thinning. Until they could feel the heat of the sun and see the crystal blue skies. The crystal blue skies that shone above them pierced their pupils. They could feel the bleeding heart drying and the heat that emitted from the mountain.

Red blacked out from all the pressure, "_It's over,_" he smiled. His voice shaken, his body weakened; all his power and essence had drained from him and his body was pale. "_I'm finished. I've completed everything... there is for me to do in this world_". He reached closer to Link in his weakened state. His consciousness faded more and more, he hugged Link in attempt to leach any power that was still present.

"_Don't leave! Not Yet!_" Link went for the edge of the mountain summit and back to the entrance to the edge of the summit. The deafening roars had calmed and Link had returned to the edge of the mountain with an unconscious Red. Vio and Blue approached him. They attempted to wake him up but he was still unconscious.

Vio felt for a pulse and he shook his head, "His heart isn't beating," Vio didn't know if Red was dead or not. "I don't know if he's... you know. He may have just been shaken a little too hard from the pressure of the mountain. Worse so, I don't know if you two did enough damage to the crystal to have actually done something in effect. It rages in spouts of blackened fire like a young star being devoured by a black hole".

"I don't know a whole lot about magic I'll admit, but black magic is the only way that we can get rid of powerful darkness," Blue said. "If my master has told me anything wise, then we'll have to do so".

Vio challenged Blue's proposal, "If you don't know a whole lot about magic, then butt out. We need to know what is true and what will destry the crystal; novicely obtained information won't do much," he softened his demeanor. "I'm sorry, but we need to have Red's abilities if we want any chance of destroying this bastard of a crystal".

* * *

Red awoke to distorted images of Blue, Vio and Link who looked the most concerned out of all of them. Contrary to the seeming lack of expression on Blue and Vio's face, Red knew that Link had seen what had happened. This was the most terrified Link had been in Red's eyes, the most terrified that Red had at least seen Link. His vision began to clear up and he saw just how concerned everyone was, Blue and Vio were wondering if Red was even alive.

Link sighed a huge sigh of relief and hugged Red, "Don't do that again... don't do that ever again. Please... don't leave me," Link whispered. He held back the urge to cry out of past fear that he had lost his friend, "I promise I'll watch after you no matter what, just promise me that you'll never do anything like that ever again".

Vio hesitantly broke up the small affair, "We still have to destroy it... and I know just how to do it," Vio's eyes filled a bright and beaming violet. The rest of their eyes glowed their corresponding color. They all leaped forward in incredible speed and strength; Rydia, the Goddess of the cosmos had given them the strength to crack the darkened heart. They had collided with the crystal and their swords had pierced four different parts of the crystal.

The crystal roared, growled and grumbled with a heavy compression of electrons that made the crystal seem almost like an isotope. It's radiation tore at their tunics and the bright brilliant light that emanated and spread throughout the air had given them no range of sight.

The crystal instead of shattering, exploded into magnificent and luminous bleach white flames that had given life to the otherwise lifeless mountain. It was as if Farore was breathing life back into the desolate wasteland and making it a mountain plateau with a luscious green that spread throughout the whitened sky. The flames had weakened and continued weakening and continued and continued until the air stood still. The crystal had completely exploded and deteriorated, and the roar of deafening silence and darkness had finally subsided. The mountain was no longer abundant with silence save for the few sounds that the four of them made. The mountain breathed and the exhales were vibrant.

All was not finished, the seas still roared with unrest and discomfort and the skies still glowed with darkness recessive behind what appeared to be blue sky. For the world was still very broken and in need of great repair, Link couldn't believe that the holy realm was once the most beautiful place in the world.

Link sighed, "Not to complain or anything, but the grass is still a swampy yellow. The flowers look to be Deku Babas; what are Deku Babas doing all the way over here?". Link looked at the still desolate looking mountain as the luscious and rich shades of green had become a dark yellow gray color like a cold, bitter tundra.

Vio noticed how strange everything had been after destroying the crystal, "That should have given back to the Death Mountain, its original form. Why does it look like that awful darkened garden?". He feared that the Darkness had only spread; were they already too late? Did they only quicken the process of the darkness spreading throughout the mountain? "My instincts tell me that there are more things indeed, that must be done," Vio said. "_It wasn't enough_".

Link wondered, "Is it the Fire Temple? Do we need to explore the depths of the Mountain Summit?" something told Link that they shouldn't have destroyed the crystal. He felt as if they made the process much more painful than it must be, "We've got to at least check. I guess I'll go first," Link attempted to jump whenever Vio held him back by bear hugging him.

"Are you insane!? You don't have a Loftwing! Even if you've had one before, they're extinct!" he urged Link not to jump. "Even if you had a _flying spell_ or something, you're at a very weakened state!". The Fire Temple was much deeper than it was before, it had been flooded with molten steel and no longer accessible.

"What do you mean? It's just a couple...," Vio interrupted him.

"...hundred kilometers away," Vio said. "You would die anyway because the old Fire Temple was flooded with lava hundreds of years ago and sunk down far into the earth's depths".

Blue was confused, "Well then what do _you_ say we do?" he said sarcastically. He stepped down from the depths of the summit and the rest of the three followed Blue down.

"If you'd listen to me, there's a Temple around here... but it isn't a _Fire Temple_," Vio said.

Red's eyes lit up, "Do you mean that Temple where the mountain people came to in time of need?". Vio shook his head.

"In this world, the Temple is much different," Vio said. "I'm sure that most of you know that the Dark World is a distorted and evil version of the regular world".

"Where is it?" Link asked.

Vio pointed over eastward, "It's far to the east. At this point, I think that there is more than one fire crystal. I don't know for sure, but the destruction of that other crystal just made this mountain worse". He observed the weak shadows of what appear to be large Tektites, but they looked like scorpions. "Not even these things are equipped to be here".  
Curiously, Red struck one of the shadows and they melted into the ground and killed the dehydrated and yellow grass. "Do you think that the crystal was really an evil entity? I know that it was near impossible to destroy, but...".

"I definitely know that it wasn't something that should be kept alive," Blue said. "It looks as if the crystal may be active in another realm, but I... I mean none of us would have enough power to transcend to such a dimension".

"Wait, what were you about to say?" Vio asked. "You said that you didn't have enough _power_ to transcend to another realm? Why?".

Blue modestly said, "It's nothing. My brother was... a sage at one point and he taught me a thing or two about inter dimensional teleportation". He shrugged it off as nothing, "I wouldn't be able to safely transport anyone seeing as how I'm not good enough at teleporting".

Link's ears perked up, "Atsuko taught me plenty about teleporting, I can show you how to do it," Link suggested. He nodded, "It's at least worth a try. You just have to trust me".

Blue smirked, "Last time I heard that, I almost burnt my house down". Against his better judgment he agreed, "...but I guess I'll trust you".

Link nodded, "It may take a little while, but I'll assure that you're doing it right. First off," Link trailed off in teaching Blue about different states of current. It sounded like Greek to Blue, but he didn't entirely tune him out as he verbosely instructed Blue.

* * *

Before they knew it, they all began to feel lighter and lighter as their vision and other senses weakened and weakened. They began to see more of the dimension where the shattered crystal was more vulnerable. It appeared to be more sharp and edgy, like a jagged vine with thorns scattered about. The sky was scarlet red and the ground was barren of all life.

They opened their eyes and were taken aback at how much darker it was, they couldn't see passed the better part of the flat land where the crystal hovered. It hovered over a giant, crystal shaped tower that glowed white.

Link commented, "This is it. We can't be here for long, it's not stable enough to support life". He drew his blade, "Let's hurry".

The others nodded, they all headed for the tower. As blue didn't want to enter the tower, he suggested, "Can't we just climb this tower like a tree? It's not like it's plainly shaped, look at these jagged structures".

"We won't be able to climb the tower like before, I'm afraid. We'll just have to enter from the inside," he entered the giant doors and it was nothing like any of them would have figured, there was a long dining hall that had white marble tiled floors, fountains, pillars and facades with skylights that revealed crystal blue skies. "_What is this? It's nothing like the legends say...,_" he thought to himself. "I don't trust it, you shouldn't either".

Red fixated on the rows of fruit, meats, poultry, fish and various other dishes that lined the seemingly endless dining hall. "Can't we just eat real quick? I'm so hungry... it wouldn't hurt, we could just-".

Link denied the offer, "I'm sorry, Red. But this is a mousetrap just waiting to catch it's prey". Contrary to what he just said, he was eying the food just as the rest of them were. "I'm hungry too, but we can't just surrender to the enemy". But Link wondered why the tall crystal stretched out so far, but the ceiling was perfectly visible, "_Where do we go? This place is just a dining hall... a fancy one at that. What am I thinking!?_". He sighed, "Self control's the key word, don't pay attention to the food". They headed forward, trying to disregard the existence of the tables.

Red still eyed the food, he noticed how much nicer the table looked and how much fancier the food and wine became as they passed. He knew that we wasn't supposed to look at the food but it was like ignoring a table full of money, it was like not acknowledging a train headed straight for him, it was like ignoring the searing pain of molten skin on hot coal, he couldn't take his eyes away from it.

"Red, stay strong. We're all hungry, but we can't let our temptations be the end of us," Link told him. He looked upward and both sides of the halls had no escape, the tunnel of the dining hall's designs were becoming more intricate and welcoming, the temperature became more comfortable, and the food became fit for a royalty, the chairs looked more and more comfortable and the wine glasses became cleaner and more resilient as if they were made out of a type of crystal.

"_He's got to be out of his damned mind, look at this dining hall! It's becoming more and more welcoming as we continue to pass. Even the blue skies are becoming more and more bright and blue,_" Blue said. "You can't expect us to ignore something that is right in front of us, I mean look at those apples, and that cubed cheese! I say that we just give in and at least take an apple and...," Link cut him off.

"We can't just give in, I'm sure we'll be rewarded in some sense for our efforts. Remember that this is a mouse trap," Link said.

"A mouse trap that I'm about to get caught in, I can't take this!" Blue ran for the table that seemed to be light years away. "You won't be able to stop me! I'd rather trap myself for something to fill the empty void that is my stomach!".

"No! You won't!" Vio grabbed Blue, who was willing to kill Vio just for something to eat. "Stop resisting dammit! It's a trap! Come on! We're all hungry and we're not going to perish just because of your selfishness!".

"Blue! Stop it!" Red called out for him. "Please don't do it!". He hugged Blue as Vio dragged him back, "Don't do it! It's not worth it!". Blue continued struggling to escape like a cat being dragged against its will.

"Fine! I'll stop it! But I'm not going to just sit and let this damned food sit there and mock me! I say we destroy everything!" Blue struggled even harder to break the wine glasses, splatter the wine everywhere, and tip the elongated mahogany table over, effectively ruining everything.

Link's eyes glowed green and he forced Blue to step away from the table, he walked against his will back to them as Red and Blue stopped restraining him. Blue had returned back to the edge of the hall, the table seemingly sprawling an arm's length away from them. Link was effectively annoyed, "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that, you're just weakening yourself even more as that food is getting the better of you. If it makes you feel better, whenever you two were looking at the summit for whatever it was, I cooked some bread with some of the wood that I took from the forest," he said. "There isn't a lot left, but I'm going to give the three loaves to the three of them because I'm not even hungry," he said.

Blue rushed to grab for the load and he ate the considerably sized loaf in two or three bites. The rest of them glared at Blue, all but Red were quite angered at Blue. Red was worried about Blue, he was crankier than usual.

Vio was the second to chew at Blue, "See what happens whenever you show no self control? You turn into an animal, you just follow your primal instincts. D'you know what that gets you? Killed, it will be the death of you. Do you think that we're not hungry? It's not even worth lecturing you, let's just go," Vio begrudgingly stepped on passed the rest of them and Red was silent. "_Some of the things that you do, I swear it,_" Vio grumbled under his voice.

"We're not getting anywhere, I think we're stuck," Link said. "I'm sure that no dining hall stretches this far, I'm going to keep going for another 40 minutes and if we're not at the end of this horrid hall, I'm turning back," he motioned for the rest of them to follow him. The hall was now unlike any of the fanciest castles and mansions that they would have even dreamed of. No words could even describe just how otherworldly and divine it was, as much as it would have been the highlight of their quest if they could eat the absolutely heavenly looking food and take in the comfortable and fancy atmosphere, it was the worst moment of the quest. Link could wager that it was worse than when his skin was damaged and he sported wounds that bled puss and stung. Whenever his feet burned and was mangled with what appeared to be trench foot.

The temperatures and atmosphere and scent and lighting and sounds were so serene and comfortable and continued to become more bliss and calming. But Link's stomach wrenched and twisted and growled and stung and ate at itself and made him insane, absolutely nothing would be able to make this any better. He would rather continue walking than whoever reward them for such dire conditions because of how disgusting everything was.

* * *

40 minutes later, the hall hadn't reached an end. He didn't want to turn back though, the beginning of the hall was a dirty prison chamber compared to this, "I won't turn back, this atmosphere is wonderful," Link said. He didn't want to turn back, he didn't want to walk one step backwards, he didn't want to blink, he didn't want to even look back, he just wanted to take in how wonderful things were.

The others were getting worried about Link, the hall was making him insane.

Blue said to Link that he should turn back; as much as he wasn't hungry anymore, he enjoyed the atmosphere as much as Link did if not even more, "You're delirious, we should turn back before things get crazy".

Link looked at Blue, "Are you kidding? Not even the fanciest place in heaven that money can buy will ever measure up! that was 50 kilometers ago!" he said cheerily. He dragged the rest of them along.

"We really should be getting back to the entrance, I know that you don't want to, but...," Vio was cut off.

"As I told Blue, you'll see, there's nothing better in this world!" he said. Before they knew it, the end of the hall finally came, it was a brilliantly decorated door with the Triforce topped on top of it like a cherry on top of an ice cream sundae. "...Like a cherry on top of a sundae, speaking of which, that cold ball of what looks to be like clay is ice cream, only royalty are said to have the means to purchase this stuff".

The rest of them didn't even feel hungry anymore, they felt as if they had eaten the right amount of food and it was like they were browsing an art gallery.

Blue wondered if this was how the end of the hall came, just be cheery and look at the brighter side of things. It was weird, but Blue had a very strong feeling about this theory.

They entered the large door and a Goddess seated a throne that sprawled across the room in intricate decorations that resembled stars, planets, galaxies, plants, flowers, fountains. The Goddess introduced herself, "I am the Goddess of the cosmos, Rydia. This is my throne room, please take a seat. They are made of fine cotton and linen, decorated with the most precious and rare metal: mythril".

They seated in the four chairs, the pain on their backs and the rest of their body seemed to melt onto the floor and sink into the depths of wherever they were.

She brushed her long, white hair out of her eyes and smiled, "You boys have made me very proud, most men of the Hylian army wouldn't have made it this far. I most applaud your cheery disposition at the wonderful atmosphere, completely ridding yourself of your hunger in the presence of a long deserved banquette. The Book of Mudora called that banquette _The Banquette of Sodom. _Your efforts of resisting temptation show your true determination and willingness to carry on".

Blue sunk in his chair, "If they hadn't restrained me, then what would have happened?".

She laughed, "Your saliva would have flown into massive rivers and you would have choked to death. You were the most likely to have gone for the food because you had the most evil coursing through your veins. I made this trial specifically for you, Blue. I know the trials that you've gone through throughout your life like you know the back of your hand. I know that your existence wasn't the most peaceful, and I had a plan for all of you before anyone that I conceived. You are the last generation for the four swords, the evil that rests in this realm will soon disappear for eternity and you, like the other 24,777,216 children that were called for this destiny will move on to take on greater things. Please, cherish this moment before the time comes for the final three trials. The darkened Fire crystal wasn't entirely destroyed and the Water Crystal will be much harder and will go passed the measures of inter dimensional existence, the trials will be the hardest you will ever face. You may not make it through the trials and some of you may perish in the process. I will not be there to watch over you, my existence is very limited in the most of these dimensions.

The other Goddesses are the only ones that will be able to watch over you, it was a plan made long ago to ensure the safety of the world. Not even I know what the plan is, only the Golden Goddess knows what the plan is. For she is the supreme Goddess of all creation and is the mother of Din, Nayru and Farore. She is my sister, and the closest to me in the divine royalty of Hyrule," she motioned for the servants to bring them something to eat.

"All of you must be dreadfully tired and weary; please, eat until you are completely satisfied. For you will perish if you are critical on energy". She wanted to address one more thing, "When you are ready to go, you will wake up and will have enough energy to overcome the Darkened Fire Temple. I have nothing left to say to you, but you are welcome to ask me anything that your minds are engineered to comprehend".


	3. The Manifestation of Evil

**The Lake Is Hiding Something**

Red opened his eyes and inhaled deeply, his eyes glistened and his heart skipped a beat. He sat up and rested his head on his hands, "Another nightmare," he determined that it was about 3:00 in the morning. That was the 3rd time Red has woken up from a nightmare. "_I don't understand why I'm so scared. Do I really have something to worry about?_" Red was positive that he had no reason to be scared. It wasn't like something would abruptly overtake his life without a little foreshadowing at least.

Red convinced himself that everything was fine, "_It will be fine, it's not like the water temple of all things will be the end of me,_" his heart skipped a beat whenever he realized that the water temple would most definitely be more dangerous than the fire temple. "_It's not a matter of just overheating, but I could drown. I could seriously die in that temple... I don't know how to swim,_" how would he break the news to the rest of them? "_That's just it; there's no nice way to put it. I'm just going to have to live up to the fact that I've had years to learn but never got around to learning. But what kind of excuse is that? It's not like I was too busy, I was a town youth that didn't need to work for money. I had plenty of ponds to swim in, I had a river bank fairly close by_".

Needless to say, that night was completely restless for Red. Not to mention the fact that he would resent and regret saying anything on the subject of his inability to swim. Despite the fact that he knew he wasn't going to sleep with that thought in his head, it didn't stop him from denying the truth.

* * *

Red opened his eyes to Link stretching out from sleeping on the hard ground of the forest floor. He yawned, he was still very much tired. The only bit of sleep that he got was the sensation of being half conscious. He quickly arose, and he stretched as well.

"The forest floor is far from a mattress, but it's much better than death mountain's floor," Link commented. He popped a couple of vertebrae in his lower back. He looked at Red and said, "If we want to get to Lake Hylia before tomorrow comes, we've got to get an early start".

Red knew what Link was hinting at, "I guess I'll wake up Blue, he doesn't really like you that much," he said, trying to sprinkle humor over the dread of how grumpy Blue is in the morning.

Link smiled and replied, "Yeah, thanks. With how monotonous Vio is, I don't think he'll be too grumpy. Maybe just a little lethargic". He walked over quickly passed Blue and started mercilessly shaking Vio.

Red did the same to Blue, and they both muttered similar sentences.

Vio opened his eyes and said, "Why this early in the morning? Lake Hylia isn't _that _far away," he wiped his eyes and yawned.

Blue, with his eyes closed said, "Please Red, it can wait until the morning comes. It's probably no later than 4:00".

"The sun is going to rise any minute. Besides, Lake Hylia is pretty far off," Red said. He shook Blue harder and he concluded that he wouldn't be able to get any more sleep.

Blue stood up on his feet and stretched out, "Alright, I'm up. This better be worth my lost sleep," he said, yawning.

"Link said that we better get an early start if we want to have any hope of getting Lake Hylia," Red explained. To that, all Blue could do was direct a glare at Link for waking him up at such an unreasonable time. "I'm going to be able to get any more sleep, anyway. I guess I'll go now," he was too tired and grumpy to yell at Link and he knew that Red would prevent him from rebelling and sleeping until noon.

* * *

They arrived at Lake Hylia. Accurate to what Link said, it was nearly twilight upon their arrival. Since they were just too tired to head straight for the darkened water crystal, they all agreed that it would be better that they get plenty of rest before they head straight for the temple. They knew that they would need all of their energy and more to destroy the crystal.

Without even saying goodnight, Red was already cuddled up and asleep. He hadn't gotten any sleep the previous night, so he didn't see a problem with going to sleep and sleeping in. He could just use the excuse that they wouldn't be able to destroy the crystal if he wasn't fully charged. Besides, no crystal took any longer than 7 hours to destroy so they would have at least 3 hours to eat and another 8 hours at the least to go to sleep if they woke up at noon.

"Good night, everyone," Link said. He lie down on the dusty and sandy beach floor and fell asleep in seconds. He rolled over to reveal an already immensely dirty tunic, Blue all but saw sleeping on such a dirty floor a fit place to sleep.

"_The damned mountain was less dirty and dusty than this,_" Blue thought to himself. "I'm going back to sleep on the forest floor, goodnight".

"Goodnight," Vio replied. As opposed to the rest of them, Vio still had quite a bit of energy, he didn't see anything wrong with taking a dip in the pool to cool off and wear himself out and get a good sleep. He pulled his boots and socks off and walked over to the pool of water, he tried to step in it and it burned. He didn't scream, but he was curious as to how such a thing was possible.

He had half a mind to tell everyone that the water was incredibly dangerous, but he decided on waiting until the morning came. He slipped his socks and boots back on, "_How am I going to pass such a wide frame of time?_". He knew that it would benefit them if they knew how dangerous the lake was, "_I still have to warn everyone, It would be better if I at least warned Blue... in fact, that's just what I'm going to do_".

He walked over to the end of the beach and the forest floor where the two connected, "Blue...," he shook Blue. He opened his eyes, "I need to tell you something".

"What is it?" Blue asked, sheepishly.

"There's something wrong with the water in that lake," Vio said. "I tried to touch the water and it burned me, it's some sort of acid. I don't know about the specifics, but all that matters is that the water crystal cannot be reached via swimming".

"Easy solution: Have Red teleport me and Link teleport you across to the crystal. I'm sure that Rydia or whomever will have a way to get us back to safety".

Vio shook his head, "It's not that easy, you'll soon learn to know very well why it isn't," he said. "As a spell caster myself, I know it to be true that it isn't as simple as a few magical phrases and instant transportation".

"We'll talk about this in the morning," Blue said. "I'm tired, so I'm not really thinking straight".

"Goodnight," Vio said.

"Goodnight," Blue replied.

* * *

It was about 8:17, and the four of them were ready to destroy what they thought would be the last crystal that they would have to destroy. Link opened his eyes to Vio, Red, and Blue all examining the ocean water. Link wiped his eyes to view more clearly Red dipping a stick in the water. Link was resisting the temptation to laugh at all of them for not understanding what water is. He walked over to the lake and asked just what in the world was going on, "What're you guys doing? Why aren't you at least swimming around in the lake?".

"There's something wrong with the lake," Red explained. "Supposedly, Vio was going to swim around in the lake and found that the lake burnt his flesh. But it doesn't seem to harm dead things," it was evident as the acidic water didn't eat away at the floor or seem to boil.

"This is the strangest acid that I've ever seen," Link said. He dipped a part of his finger in the acid and he dunk it into the sand and wiped it on his already rather dirty tunic. "That really burns!".

"We've already been talking about some possible solutions as to how we could get to the water crystal," Red explained. "We came up with two fundamental things, we could try to dispel the water's acidic content or teleport there".

"I vote that we should teleport there," Blue said. "We don't know how long it would take to restore the water to normal".

"I vote the same," Red cosigned.

"I think that we should at least try to dispel the water's acidic content," Vio said.

Link thought for a moment as to what would be the best option. "Either way, it would be very dangerous to Red and I. It takes more energy than a spell caster should ever use". Link took a moment to consider the possibility of either option, "_Would it even be possible to teleport or dispel the water?_".

"Either way, we don't have a bunch of time to make the decision," Vio warned them. "Since the popular vote seems to be teleporting, then we should get to it right away".

"Since I'm not even sure if we'd survive from that much energy use, one of us will have to take the risk just to get there," Link said. "If Red won't be willing to go first, then I'll go". Link knew that Red wouldn't like the thought of seeing Link die, he'd have to be the strong one. "_As much as Red wouldn't be able to stand the sight of me dying, I'm not particularly a fan of seeing Red potentially die, myself_".

Red's heart nearly stopped, "If one of us run the risk of dying, then I'll go first," he said. "I don't want to be the one to see Link die". At that point, everyone knew that there would be no persuasion to let Link go first.

"Since I know that you likely won't change your mind, then let's just get started," Link said. "...But before that, I just want to take the moment to say that I really enjoyed working with you. It was fun while it lasted".

"Yeah, so long," Blue said. "We won't forget you".

"You won't be forgotten," Vio said. "I'll miss you when you're gone".

Link tried his hardest not to cry, he wasn't going to let it all out if and/or until they were there and he was dead. His heart did nothing but pound furiously, he thought that he was going to faint. "Let's make this as fast as possible, just promise me that you'll be careful," he said to Red.

"I promise," Red said, a single tear drop fell from his cheek. He focused all of his power into Link, Blue, and Vio's bodies. They began to float in mid air, they hovered over the lake ever so slowly. Red began to strain his magic more and more and more until every last bit of magic focused on them. After about 12 minutes of straining and focusing his magic, it began to physically hurt.

It travelled through his sides and chest and continued to expand and grow like poison ivy whenever scratched. The pain was so intense, his nerves began numbing and the pain began to increase despite the fact that it was increasing rapidly and exponentially. Another 12 minutes passed and Red was back to normal, he could tell that he was being slowly crushed and dismembered from the inside outward.

They were getting very close to the entrance of the Water Crystal, which seemed to be a tower. They slowly floated down, there was a good chance that the three of them could burn to death if Red died before they were safely placed at the entrance of the temple. It became evident to Link that it would have been a much better idea if they would have tried to dispel the water back to normal, even if it did have a chance of interfering with the restoration of Lake Hylia. The Zoras were long gone in this world and the sea life was killed from the acidic content of the water.

At this point, Red didn't feel anything. It was just like before his concentration grew and grew and grew until he was more than stressing his magical limits. He felt himself dying, he knew that he was going to die at that point. "_Goodbye,_" the three of them were safely transported to the water crystal tower and Red fell backward. His insides stopped warping and returned to normal, he fell back to the ground with a quiet thud.

* * *

Arriving to the tower, Link knew that Red was dead, "I heard him say goodbye to me," Link said. He began crying, he didn't care whoever saw him cry. "We took the risk and I knew that he would die, I knew it...," he cried.

"I'll really miss him," Blue said. "It's a shame that he had to pass. No matter what I've ever said before".

"I'll give all of you a minute to mourn before we go on, I can't just let you fight whatever is coming up with this sudden fatality in mind," Vio said. "Red will be dearly missed". A single tear drop wet the cheek of Vio, "My first tear...," he said, wiping it off of his face. "For the death of Red," a few more began to drop. "I'll miss you so damned much, Red," a few more tear drops fell down to the floor.

* * *

An hour later, they all agreed that they were ready to destroy the water crystal and avenge the death of Red. Not ready necessarily, but they knew of the limited time frame that they had. They didn't even know how much time they had, they headed straight through the Gothic looking doors.

They entered a giant room spanning an apothem of over 2,000 meters, a heptagon that had a demonic crystal sculpture of a dragon representing the different dark crystals. At this point, they knew that there would be more darkened crystals that they would have to destroy. Three out of the seven of them glowed a light blue color, the fire crystal which resembled Volvogia was the center; to the right, a crystal of a dragon that had thorns and flowers sticking out of various places on the dragon. To the left, a dragon that closely resembled some strange hybrid between a squid and a dragon.

The rest of the dragons didn't glow, the material seemed to be stone. Below the dragon statues, there were gargoyles; three for each dragon that all carried traits of each sculpture.

"Someone really had a lot of time on their hands," Blue commented. "Despite how strange it is for my taste, it is rather beautiful". Blue was the first to enter the Temple's main room.

At the ceiling of the magnificent structure, was a beautiful mural depicting demonic versions of the three goddesses and at the center point of the heptagon where the dragon of the fire crystal spanning downward was an angelic depiction of Valani'ile: the God of Darkness.

"This temple doesn't cease to amaze me," Blue said. He must've spent a good 10 minutes staring at the magnificent structure, "But why would the water temple act as the final dungeon? It doesn't seem right to me".

"Yeah, I agree," Link cosigned. "As much as I am a fan of the architecture, I don't trust it".

"It is quite a sight to see," Vio commented. "But I don't think that it's what we want, as of now". Vio looked around, and he saw a blue and glowing crystal under him. The blue crystal floor was somewhat transparent, but the darkened crystal could barely be seen. "_A clever move, make the actual temple breath taking and distracting to waste more time. I'll give it my respect, it's been a while since I've seen anything original_".

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Link asked all of them.

"It appears that the actual water crystal is under the floor of this shrine of sorts," Blue commented. "They crafted this part temple to waste our time while we admire the architecture". He pulled out his sword, "Let's break the floor".

"This crystal appears to be made out of diamond, you might not be able to break the floor with your sword alone," Vio said. "It's still worth a try, though". He unsheathed his sword as did Link.

They all jumped high in the air and charged energy into their blade, and they struck the magnificently sculpted floor. The impact formed a triangular crack that spread across the floor. It soon reached the edges of the tower, but it wasn't enough to break the strong crystal.

"One more time!" Link yelled. They charged again and cracks sprouted off of the previously made cracks; they continued and continued and continued until almost the entirety of the floor was covered in cracks.

The holes that they struck repeatedly formed tiny enough holes so that they barely fit through. Despite the floor being designed to not break under the force of less than 190 pounds, they were able to fall to the floor which was low enough to be below the sea's floor. The heptagon led through seven different passages and the center passage's door had golden rimming.

Instinctively, the four of them all chose to enter through the passage with the golden rimming. Passing through the long hallway, the door led to a throne room which sat the God of Darkness: Valani'ile.

He stood as still as a statue, he had wings that spanned out like a butterfly and an ivory chest plate that resembled a rib cage. He wore a long cape that obscured most of his body.

"You killed Red!" Blue yelled, charging without waiting. He contacted Valani'ile and without any reaction time, Valani'ile unsheathed his long blade and blocked Blue's strike. The blade stood out a good 2 meters, and roughly 5 centimeters thick. The hilt was about 5 decimeters long and intricately decorated.

He stood up slowly and Blue backed away from him, "It appears that you're angry at me on behalf of an event that occurred under your hands," he said, calmly. He held his blade, "That tiny blade of yours won't be enough to kill me". He stood up, towering over all of them; his long hair fluttered in the breeze.

"That won't stop me from trying!" Blue charged for him again and he blocked Blue's attack, once again. This time, his blade shattered like glass. "_What?_".

He lifted his blade and slashed at Blue, instantly killing him, "I told you that your tiny blade won't kill me," he said once again, in a calm and professional tone. Single handedly wielding his blade, he lifted what looked to be hundreds of pounds worth of precious metal. "Let this be a warning, I'll kill the rest of you if I must".

"_I don't believe what I'm seeing!_" Link exclaimed. "_How the hell are we going to even deal a scratch to him if he can just kill Blue without even trying!?_".

He spoke again, "I could've spared his life, but he was acting foolish and without strategy. If you desire your life, then you'll know not to act with such stupidity and doltishness. I'm normally quite a reasonable person, we could have settled this like gentlemen instead of like animals".

"There was no reasoning behind killing Blue!" Link shouted. Fury in his demeanor, he resisted the urge to strike him like Blue did, "You turned the world into... this! What's the reasoning behind turning the world into this mess!?".

"Calm down," Vio warned. "I know how to deal with this, you've just got to remain calm".

Link took a deep breath, and exhaled.

"My reasoning? This world is my canvas and I painted this picture, the new world," he explained. "My reasoning behind killing your friend was that I knew that he wouldn't settle himself, consider it my favor to you. Now we can settle this".

"Settle this!?" Link yelled. "This isn't a favor! You killed him!".

"Fine, let us settle this," Vio said. "My first point of suggestion is that you restore this world back to it's original state".

"Your wish is granted," he snapped his finger and nothing happened. "The world has been restored, just take a look around you".

"This isn't normal! This was a shrine that was dedicated to the three Goddesses and you turned it into this! This distortion! This mess! You call this normal!?" Link charged for Valani'ile with lightning speed and his rib cage shaped chest plate shattered.

"I've had quite enough of this!" Valani'ile struck Link. But Link was too fast for him.

Link dealt another strike to Valani'ile and a giant crevice was sliced into his chest. Valani'ile warped into a demonic looking thing that attacked with even quicker speed than before.

"Your world will never be restored to normal! I'll kill you, you damned insect!" he struck Link, but he blocked it with his sword. It didn't appear to be the Four Sword, any more. It was golden and much more durable and sharper than the original sword.

"Maybe Blue doesn't know how to use this sword, but I do!" Link struck him again with another furious blow. This time, not nearly as much damage was inflicted.

Vio unsheathed his sword and charged at him, "I was hoping that we could've settled this properly!" he struck Valani'ile's side, he screamed in pain as black liquid that evaporated into violet smoke fell to the ground.

At the other side of Valani'ile, Link struck him and the skin and armor connecting the two sides where they had cut completely disconnected itself. More of his blood fell to the ground, it flowed in oceans and flooded his throne room. "This isn't the end of me! I'm immortal! I'll kill the both of you regardless of anything that you try to do!".

A ray of light came down and Rydia hovered down to Valani'ile, "Your reign of terror is over! You are no God! I gave you the responsibility of keeping the world safe and you turned it into hell! The Divine Order will never forgive you for your treachery! You will die and be judged as a mortal!". Rydia unsheathed a long and snow white blade that shone brighter than she shone.

Valani'ile screamed and shrieked in pain as the light of the blade was enough to weaken him to the point of paralysis. Rydia struck him and in a ray of light and consuming fire, Valani'ile was stripped of his divine properties and sent back to hell.

Rydia sheathed her blade and looked down to their level, "I am terribly sorry for your loss," Rydia began. "Now that Valani'ile no longer has any control over this realm, the power of this realm has been returned to the Goddesses of the Triforce".

She closed her eyes and made a sphere of light appear out of her hand, "Please, allow me to return you to your normal realm. It has been done, you two have broken the seal. You may return home".

They all willingly stepped into the ray of light and they were sent back to the Temple of the Four Swords.

* * *

Expecting not to see Red and Blue, Vio and Link arrived back at the Temple.

Vio had a blank expression on his face, "This wasn't the way I wanted everything to end," he said. "I'm terribly sorry that you had to see that".

Link had the same blank expression, "I'm not angry at you, nor Blue nor Red. I'm sure that they are in a better place". He sighed, "Goodbye... I don't know whether I'll see you again".

"Goodbye," Vio forced a small smile and they both returned the Four Sword to the pedestal.

Meanwhile, Red and Blue were eating some fish closely enough by the pedestal. Red, while still chewing a mouth full of salmon asked, "Do you think that they're here yet?".

Blue replied, "I didn't hear anything, they'll arrive soon".

Red held out a bracelet, "I'm gonna give Link this bracelet to remember me by, what plans do you have?".

"I'll feed them salmon, I'm sure they'll be starved half to death when they get here!" Blue said. They both laughed and continued to eat.


	4. Spadebloom

**The Resurrection of Valani'ile  
**

**Prologue**

He held the world in his hands, like a marble that glistened in fear of his power. "Soon, very soon. I shall have my way with these insects," he said. He sat in his chamber, holding a box with a tiny switch that resembled a modern day light switch. The box looked to be made out of iron and on the front of it, was a spade symbol that was made out of a unique crystalline substance that resembled a light blue peridot stone . Many people would renown the God of Darkness after the switch was turned, for the tiny box no larger than 8 cubic centimeters contained an unspeakable power.  
The world would know of his anguish that has rotted his subconscious over the years. The world would know his fury and suffer the actions of Link, Red, Blue and Vio. The world would grow to hate them for putting them through such torture.

It was crafted by the Architect of Ruination, an entity who crafted Ganon from pure darkness and malice. This contraption had more power than an army of 1000 Ganons; obviously enough, this object wasn't meant to fall into the hands of a mortal nor an evil God. These powerful Gods were known as the Antigods of the Triforce, making the Unholy Trinity of Majora: an ancient Demigod of the Kingdom of Jinsyo.  
"_They shall all suffer as I have, they shall all learn the meaning of pain and misery. They will learn to hate those bastard children,_" Valani'ile grinned wide, caressing the box at the world's suspense.

**Part 1: The Architect of Ruination  
The Banquet  
A Sign of the Times**

A man with a long, white robe knelt down at an alter with a giant emerald as a centerpiece. It was cubically shaped and had ancient writing inscribed on it. Seryd, was his name. For he knew the fate of the world, he was the only one who could see the signs of the world's ruination. "_I appeal to you, Golden Goddesses of the Triforce. I trust that you will rid Valani'ile of the volatile and powerful force that he wields, I trust that you will come to our aid,_" he felt a tugging on his robes.  
He turned around and saw nothing, but he heard a voice saying something very faintly. "_Was this a direct confrontation? Could this be the essence of the Triforce?_". He wondered why it was so faint, "_Whoever you may be, is your power limited in this world?_" he spoke.

The force spoke again, "My name is Rydia, I am the Goddess of Time," it spoke with a feminine, but strong force that was clearly defined. "Your prayer echoes loud in the heavens above, your faith is quite strong. Unfortunately, not many people are as faithful, anymore," she continued. "You know what to do, it is written in your very Holy word".  
She warned Seryd, "You don't have a great deal of time to act, impending doom is just a switch turn away," she said. "Good look to you, Seryd. The Golden Goddesses as well as I, Rydia, thank you dearly for your cooperation".

Seryd bid Rydia farewell, he went into his private chamber to change into proper clothing. He stripped his robes from his body and hung them on several different hangers and vanilla colored underclothing with mythril armor consisting of a chest plate, gauntlets, knee and elbow guards. He went to the other side of his chamber to get his silver sword.  
He brushed out his long, black hair and departed his private chamber. He made his way out of the Temple and into the village of Jinoa, a remote village that is located far off into the desert outskirts of Hyrule. Seryd braced himself for a long journey, as would Link whenever he hears the news.

* * *

In the busy market of Hyrule: Zelda, her escorts and her father were on a leisurely walk through the upper parts of the square. They dressed casually so that they wouldn't draw nearly as much attention.  
Zelda wore a lavender dress with white embroidery and matching earrings, bracelets, a necklace and shoes.  
Her father wore a casual black tuxedo with Ruby velvet interior that was adorned with golden embroidery; black dress pants and shoes. He wore his nearly shoulder length obsidian black hair in a brushed back anchorman hairstyle.

On Sundays, the market was especially busy and nearly everyone visited the Temple of Light to worship the golden Goddesses. They always got to see people from all over the world, enjoying the luxuries of such a prosperous town. The townsfolk also enjoyed foreign jewelries, food, music, instruments, books and much more.

One stall particularly interested Zelda, it was a mystical booth that was decorated with Gerudo fashioned furnishings, clothing and apparel, Jewelry, books and smelled of elegant and mysterious incense.  
Zelda wasn't the only one that was drawn to the booth, her father and the guards all showed mutual interest in the stall.

"Why this is quite an interesting booth," her father exclaimed. "Look at all the foreign jewelry, I can't even name half of these stones!". Zelda, hovered over to the jewelry and back to the clothing with a pocket full of money, typical behavior for her.  
"This has got to be the cutest dress I've ever seen! It goes perfectly with most, if not all of my jewelry!" she adored the dress.

A lady with with luscious and long black hair, oil colored skin long chartreuse eye makeup, emerald encrusted golden jewelry, green eyes and a green dress said, "That dress was made by my sister Cholu, she only crafts with the finest of materials. This dress of mine, she made out of emerald lined thread," she said.  
"You yourself and your father are quite well dressed, as well," she said. "Please, feel free to look around, I've got many items for sale that cannot be found anywhere else".

"I'm sure that you've got some books that not even my library contains, it seems that your culture is quite luxurious," Zelda's father said. He peered off to the Books and scrolls, "My, this is quite intriguing. What a beautiful binding," he said, looking at a tomb written in a foreign language.

Meanwhile, Zelda met eyes with what looked to be some sort of goblet. It didn't look anything like any of the goblets and grails that she was used to, this one was silver, and intricately decorated with patterns of the Gerudo insignia and at the center were two symbols that Zelda had never seen before.  
"Excuse me, miss. But what are these two symbols?" she asked.

"What symbols? On the goblet?" she asked. Zelda nodded her head and she put her glasses on to read the text, "It means 'Holy Goblet' in the far eastern Gerudo language of Sygjin".  
"That's really interesting," Zelda replied. "My father's trying to make me learn a foreign language. Who knows? I might just pick it up," she said.

Meanwhile, Seryd was getting really close to the Hyrule field, only 16 more miles and he'd be within the view of the castle town. "Where does Link live? Hmm," he said. "_To be honest, I'm not sure even if Link would be widely known yet. I'm sure that I'll be able to find them somewhere, I'll just have to hurry,_" he rode his horse until late evening broke and his horse was too tired to go on.  
"I'll let you rest at a nearby pond," he was in the far grasslands, the castle was barely in sight and there was a giant river near the horizon. "So much for pond," he said.  
"_I've got to set up some sort of camp if I'm going to rest,_" he thought to himself.  
Nearing the river, he made out a series of cabins followed by a small group of people. "_Could that be a village? It's a very small one, if it is. Smaller than Jinoa_".

He approached the small village, "Greetings, my name is Seryd of Jinoa. I have journeyed a long way in hurry to find Hyrule Castle Town," he pulled a sack wallet out and continued, "If you let me stay here for the night, I'll leave by morning and pay my necessary debts to you".  
The Elderly man laughed and said, "We don't require your payment. My name is Hideki, we're farmers who travel to the Castle Town regularly to sell our numerous amounts of cattle. This Jindou ranch, we neighbor Lon Lon ranch".  
"Please, stay as long as you need to," Hideki said.

"Thank you," Seryd said. "I'll need to leave early as I'm in quite a rush," he dismounted his horse and Hideki showed him to the guest cabin.  
It had two beds and fairly modern looking floor work and wall work.  
"This is quite a guest cabin," he said. "It reminds me of the temples of Jinoa".

"I'll take that as a compliment," Hideki said, lightheartedly. He turned a switch and two lanterns dangling by a chain lit up, "Just flip the switch the other way if you want the lights off". He left and shut the door.  
At this rate, Seryd would have a little more time to get going seeing as how he wouldn't have to wait to pay them. Seryd put his sword beside him and lay down on probably the most comfortable beds that a guest cabin has ever had.

* * *

Valani'ile was watching everything and laughing maniacally. This time, there would be no hiding, no planning and no attacks. He could turn the switch as soon as he wanted to, but only at the right time and at the highest point of self accomplishment and success will Valani'ile turn the switch.  
"Soon, you'll understand what it's like to have all of your work destroyed," Valani'ile cackled.  
"This time, I'll have the upper hand".

He continued vomiting taunts at them. Soon enough, the time would come where Link and Zelda finally meet again. "This time, you'll have greater troubles than Ganon," he said.

* * *

The morning came, Link rubbed his eyes and determined that he realized that today was the day that he'd finally see Zelda again. She told him that he could revisit the castle any time he wanted. Tagged along with that, Impa and her father were very eager to visit him and are even throwing a banquet in his honor.  
Link looked in the mirror and realized that his hair was an unmanaged mess, he wasn't presentable. Less so in front of royalty, "I've gotta brush this out," he then looked at his clothes.  
He cringed at the thought of wearing those stinky rags to the castle, "I've also got to get some fresh clothes," he threw his shirt off and he rummaged around until he found just the right tunic. It was a wonderful malachite colored tunic that Saria had given him nearly 3 years ago. It was embroidered with lime green leaves and flowers and looked to be almost aristocratic looking.

"Perfect," Link said as he slid the tunic on and then proceeded to brush every tangle out of his golden hair. After his hair looked presentable to him, he polished the wear and tear off of his boots.  
He then rubbed some Lavender oil on his skin to overpower Link's scent, after about 3 hours of preparation. Much more than usual, Link made his way out the door. He hadn't been so excited about getting out in years, the last couple of times were against his will.

Whenever he met at the gate, Mido had his fair share of snide comments to say but they traveled through one ear and out the other. In fact, Link didn't even notice Mido talking to him.  
"I've got a feeling that today is going to be a good one," Link said cheerily. Quite rare behavior coming from Link, usually a loner and a grump.

Link noticed a man on horseback approaching him quickly, he seemed to be in quite a rush. Nearly minutes later, the man stopped and tried to explain himself in such a way that Link could understand.

Seryd tried to act calmly, "Hello, my name's Seryd. Do you by any chance, know the Princess Zelda?". Seryd prayed that he wouldn't have to abduct Link and the princess by force due to the lack of time.  
Link gave a suspicious look, "Yeah, I was... just about to attend a party at the castle," Link replied. He raised an eyebrow at the man. "Why do you ask? Do you have business with the princess?".  
Seryd nodded, "Please, ride with me. The trip won't take nearly as long. The King knows me quite well, he'll be able to explain everything".  
Link was still suspicious, "Pull any sneaky antics and you'll be sorry".  
"Trust me, I'm not that kind of person," Seryd said. The look on his face was enough to tell that the man meant well.

Link mounted the horse and he road with Seryd to the horse stall, one of the guards at the draw bridge escorted Seryd's horse to the stall.

Arriving at the castle, Link had an invitation and the guard recognized Seryd, "It's been a while since we've seen you, Seryd," the guard said. "It's always a pleasure to have you over".  
"Thank you, it is always a pleasure to visit," he replied.

"I suppose you weren't lying, after all," Link lightened up. "I'm sorry for being so suspicious, but too many people try telling me that they have business in the castle with the princess and it's almost never official".  
"I understand," Seryd replied. "Now, you'll believe me whenever I say that we don't have much time. I need to let you as well as Princess Zelda, Saria, Ruto, Nabooru, Darunia, Impa, and Rauru know of the coming events".

"What is it?" Link asked.  
"I can't tell you now," Seryd said. "Running the risk of everyone panicking and everything crashing down, I must let you know after the party. I found you much earlier than I first would've guessed".

They entered the main foyer in the building, at the front center, there were three reception desks and at either end of the desks were two grand staircases that led to both the second level of the castle, but the two wings of the castle.  
In one of the chairs, seated next to a small table was Zelda. She looked relatively bored and mundane, she looked upward and noticed Link. Her face brightened up and she ran towards him and hugged him.

"My Gods, it's been too long!" Zelda exclaimed. "How are you doing?". Second, she noticed Seryd and she laughed, "It's a whole reunion!" she hugged Seryd and he knelt down to her level."It's a pleasure to see you again, my dear," Seryd said.

"Do you know Seryd?" Zelda asked.  
Link shook his head, "No, I just met him rushing to the castle on royal business".

Zelda nodded in understanding, "He's usually quite busy, most of the time. Being Arch Sage of the Jinoa Temples and all".  
"Would you care to join us today? That is if you've got the time," she said, being courteous of Seryd's tight locked schedule. Seryd nodded, "Yay!" she cheered.  
She grabbed Link's hand, "Come with me! I'll show you to around!".

Link was awestruck at how profound and elegant the architecture was, every room of the castle must've took three years to build alone. At that point, Link knew that the center room with three entrances was where Link was going to be.

Zelda smiled, "This is the entire royal staff of Hyrule! We're one big family!" Zelda then continued to name everyone of them and they replied with either, "Hello," or, "It's a pleasure".

Once everyone introduced themselves to Link, a good 35 minutes was killed and Link was already a tad worn out by all of their company. Zelda said, "We're all going to the main dining halls, they all surround this room!".  
All Link could say was, "That's really cool sounding!".

Zelda dragged Link to the left of the room and through one of the entrances. It was quite literally a hallway; spanning about 50 meters in width, over 200 meters in length and 20 feet high not including the domes and facades. The hall had magnificent architecture, complete with facades, statues of the golden Goddesses, crystal chandaliers that were larger than Link was, domes and murals that were both painted and fashioned from stained glass. The hall's dominant color was ivory white followed by many other colors. The light hitting the stained glass made the walls reflect beautiful color combinations.  
A small ensemble and harpsichord played late era baroque music that was calm and inviting.  
The room smelled of rich marzipan and other rare chocolates as well as quail, turkey, various beef dishes, salads, paired along with many other luxurious dishes.

Link's mouth was heavily watering, "I don't think I've seen a more delicious variation of food in my life!" he said. "_Man, if royalty gets to eat this kinda food everyday, then I wanna be royalty when I grow up!_".  
Zelda giggled and said, "I told you it'd be a real treat!". Zelda whispered into Link's ear, "_I think my dad went just a little bit overboard with the chocolate, I told him that just a few hundred boxes would do. But he ordered 1000 boxes_".

Link couldn't help but giggle out of excitement, "Man! I didn't think that the banquet would be nearly as exciting!".

Zelda's father walked up to Link and gave a calm and pleasant smile, "Ah! You must be Link!" he shook his hand. "It is a grand pleasure to have you as our special guest tonight".  
"Thank you, your majesty," Link replied.  
"Please, call me Ryouta," he said, he brushed his hair back.

Impa followed closely, "So I've heard that you finally got yourself a real friend," she said. She looked at Link, "Oh my, you look familiar," she tried to remember his name.  
"You've met this boy before?" Ryouta asked.  
"I can't remember exactly how I recognize his face... and his green clothing," Impa strained for Link's name.

"My name is Link, and you must be Impa," Link bowed to Impa.

"That's it!" Impa made the connection. "Zelda showed me a picture of you that she keeps on her bedside table".

Link blushed a little, but rationalized that they were friends and she wasn't one of _those_ crazy stalker girls. "Oh... really?" he tried to say.  
Zelda blushed after Link said that, "I hope you don't take it the wrong way".

"More good news!" Impa said. "Seryd has returned. He's going to be sitting with us! Please, take a seat". Link, and Zelda followed Impa and the King to the middle of the table.  
Everyone seemed to be sitting in a particular arrangement, Link absolutely adored how organized and structurally symmetrical everything was. It almost made him forget all about Seryd's bad tidings that he would inevitably share with him, some point in time.

Ryouta noticed that Link was eying the food with intent upon eating every last morsel, "You may eat any time you're ready, Link. We're not waiting for anything".  
Link reached for a little bit of everything, he began digging in, Seryd noticed Link's large apatite .  
"You'll need all of your energy soon, so make sure that you can't stuff another morsel of food into your mouth," Seryd smiled.  
His awkward way of telling Link that his next quest was coming up was rather charming and almost funny.

* * *

Almost an hour later, most of the people were cleaning up and continuing their work shifts. Before Link was about to do the same, Ryouta explained to him, "I told everyone that for an hour, they would dine with us to welcome you, Link. Everyone accepted without any hesitation, who would?" They all laughed.

Everyone had finished eating and observed in awe, how a child no older than 10 years old could stuff themselves with more than an adult sized serving of foodstuffs.  
In minutes, Link had finished his 4th and last platter of food. He noticed everyone staring at him intently and he became self conscious, "Is there something on my face?" he rubbed his face.

"You must be quite active to have consumed that much food," The King commented. "You're quite well dressed, so I doubt you get daily meals at least".  
"He's going to be quite tall whenever he blossoms," Impa commented. "You're quite lucky to have a nice tall man".

"Impa!" Zelda exclaimed, she tried to hide her immense blushing.  
After Impa apologized for embarrassing Zelda, she noticed how late that it was getting, "Zelda dear, it's nearly 10 o' clock. I don't want you in the public dining halls passed hours, remember what we talked about beforehand, right?".

"Yep! You said that after 10, that Link and I will stay in my room for the remainder of the night," Zelda paraphrased.

"Staying the night?" Link asked.  
"Zelda did go through that tidbit of information, did she not?" the king asked. "If not, then would you care to? If not, then I'll understand".

"Sure! I'd love to!" Link said.  
"Yay!" Zelda cheered. Zelda dragged Link out of the dining hall, and into the royal family's private hall in the right wing and into her room. It was a fancy 100 square foot room with dark oak wood floor, a red carpet, her bed at the center right, vanity next to the entrance to the balcony, a wardrobe next to the vanity and two bedside dressers along with small tables on the corners filled with other accessories. The walls were a velvet red color and the ceiling was a cubical dome that arched upward 5 meters featuring beautiful architecture.

"This castle is a giant canvas!" Link exclaimed. "How long did it take to build this castle?".  
"My father says around 50 years, we lived in what are now middle class houses," Zelda said.

Link yawned causing Zelda to yawn, "All that eating has made me tired," Link said. "Where do I sleep?".

As if on cue, Impa chimed in, "I almost forgot to mention it. Link, I've ironed some clothes that our maids crafted for you. Zelda, I'll run your bath in a minute and I'll run your bath after," Impa said.  
"Wow! Thanks!" Link said. He never knew what it was like to have a mother, it seemed to be great.  
"Link, if you need fresh towels, they're in the cupboard under the sink," Impa added.

Zelda blushed and smiled, "Link, can I have some privacy?" she asked.  
Link blushed back and replied, "Yeah... sure". Like a spooked cat, Link trotted into his own room and shut the door. He exhaled, "_That was close_".

Within minutes, Impa came in with steel containers of hair conditioner, shampoo and body wash, "I don't know why the bath didn't have any products, so here's your Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Wash," she went over to the tub to run warm water through the tub, she reached for the drain plug and blocked the drain.

"There you go," Impa said. "Goodnight"."Goodnight," Link said. "Thank you for everything".  
Impa laughed, "Finally, someone who appreciates my work!" she said sarcastically.

Link heard Zelda faintly reply, "I know you said that!".  
"I don't know what you're talking about, darling," Impa replied. "If you need me, I'm right across the hall from Zelda.".

"Okay," Link said. "Thanks again". Impa left the room.

Whenever Link was positive that Impa had left the room, he began to disrobe his clothing and get into the tub of water. The heat was enough to release any tension that was present in Link's body.  
He began to clean himself with products that he wasn't even familiar with, he assumed that the conditioner was basically the same as the shampoo. The body wash was self explanatory.

* * *

Whenever he was done taking the bath, he unplugged the drain plug and let the water flow into the drain. He proceeded to clothe himself with a comfortable bath robe. He folded his old clothes neatly and put the new clothes that Impa's maids fashioned for him at his bedside table.  
Link plopped himself onto the spacious bed and cuddled in between the many layers of covers. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, at all.

At this point, Link had completely forgotten about Seryd's tidings and wouldn't know what he was talking about in the coming morning. Though he didn't have any plans, he would've brought anything that he needed as opposed to being unprepared.

Meanwhile, Seryd was writing in his log book several notes about what he's observed. He didn't know what information he would need, so he cherry picked any information that could be important.  
Whenever he finished, he lay in his bed with his eyes wide open. His head raced with thoughts of what he might have to face and how everyone would handle everything. He wondered if he wasted too much time, "_I'll teleport them to where they need too be if something hits the fan_".

But the question still remained, how would he break the news to the king? "_I know how protective Ryouta is of his daughter, but Zelda does seem like a strong spell caster though. Link would be able to use his strength to fend off anyone or anything that comes at her_".  
As much as Seryd tried to convince himself that everything would work out, he needed a plan if the chance came that anyone was at all, against it. "_But if the world's existence depends on Link and Zelda, wouldn't there be some exception?_".

While Seryd lay wide awake and Link was sleeping like a baby, Zelda was recording that day in her diary. She wrote on and on about how excited Link was and how much different the castle was whenever Link was around. She continued writing until she was too tired to; after that, she plopped her head down onto her mattress and fell asleep.

* * *

The sun began to pierce the horizon, shining an eerie red light onto the smoky clouds of the retiring night. Seryd came through the door of Link's chamber and tried to shake Link awake.  
He knew by how cuddled in the covers he was, that it wouldn't exactly be a joy to wake him up. He continued to shake Link harder and harder until his eyes flung open and he was trying to shoo Seryd away, "What're you doing?! Can't you just let me sleep in once in a while? Saria! Stop it!".

Seryd couldn't help but lightheartedly laugh at Link being half asleep, "Up n' at em! Unless you don't like bacon, pancakes and scrambled eggs!" he was an offer that Link couldn't refuse, he was completely awake, "Where?".  
Seryd continued laughing and calmed down, "Follow me, we're going to be a little early. So don't hurry up," he said. Link forgot that he wasn't dressed yet, Seryd prayed that Link knew that nightclothes were absolutely unacceptable in public, "Surely you know that you can't just leave dressed in your nightclothes".  
"Yeah, I know," Link said tiredly. He looked at the clock, squinted and saw that it was 5:00 in the morning.  
Seryd left the room and before shutting the door, "Whatever you do, don't fall asleep again!" he warned Link.  
"Yeah," Link replied monotonously. He took a look at his clothes, it consisted of a wonderfully crafted button up tunic that looked like a trench coat that was crystal green. Followed by white tights; however, the tunic made the tights nearly unnoticeable.

He put on the clothes and brushed out his hair with a metallic comb with rubber coated teeth, he brushed his hair out and noticed how effective the comb was compared to the wooden combs that he'd been using for most of his life. It didn't take but five minutes to get all of the cowlicks to stay down, his hair seemed to flow together perfectly whenever he used the mysterious comb.  
He slipped his boots on and headed out the door and tried to make his way to the dining hall, he remembered where the main hall was, so he followed the private wing down to the giant assembly room and to the left to the empty dining hall. He walked forward to a joint in the hall that led to the main hall, on the ceiling was a dome shaped stained glass mural of the three goddesses with their respective spiritual stone.

Link couldn't help but adore the artistry of the castle, it was like the palace of Versailles. Seryd soon caught up with him, "I'm terribly sorry for not telling you sooner, but the royal family has a private dining hall. I'll show you to it," Seryd took Link's hand as he was still not all the way conscious yet. "This is the assembly room, and that was the public dining hall". Seryd walked back to the royal family's private wing and took a left to another giant hall, and entered through the first door to the right.  
He then proceeded to walk down a staircase and there was a room that wasn't as big, albeit still quite large for a dining hall.

The King and Impa were already seated, and across the table were Rauru, Saria, Darunia, Nabooru, and Ruto. Link was slightly taken aback by seeing them there.  
"High Link! This is some sight to see, isn't it?" Saria waved to Link.  
"Greetings, brother," Darunia said. "It is a pleasure to see you, this morning".  
"Hello, Link," Nabooru said. "Please take a seat". Link took a seat and Ruto said hello, lastly.  
"Hey, Link!," she said cheerily. "You're not much of a morning person, are you?".  
Link rubbed his eyes, "It's 5:00 in the morning...". He stretched and yawned, "Who needs to wake up at 5:00 in the morning".

"You must still be half asleep," Zelda said, walking down the staircase. "It's actually 6 o' clock," she referred to her pocket clock.  
Link was surprised at how anyone could ever stand to wake up this early, "How can all of you stand to wake up at this hour?" he muttered lazily.

Impa poured Link some hot tea, "This is how I get my morning start," she said. "Be careful if you don't drink tea often".  
Link sipped the tea, "This tastes like the hot cocoa that Saria makes every morning".

"It does!" Saria agreed. Link rubbed his head and Saria got the hint, "I should know better. Sorry for speaking so loudly," she tried to tone herself down a notch.

Seryd spoke up, "I have some bad news; I feel that it is necessary that all of you hear this. The world has been put back into the hands of Valani'ile, a box with a switch. No larger than 8 cubic cm, this tiny switch could send the world into havoc and ruination any day, any hour, any minute, or any second".  
The King knew what he must do, "I see that this is a huge problem, I believe the seven sages and Link are more than enough to solve this problem. I'll let all of the royal guards and officers know of- ," he was cut off by Seryd.  
"We can't risk anyone else knowing of this secret, they won't be able to handle this. An entire nation living in fear won't solve anything".

"What do we do about something this big?" Saria asked.  
Seryd adjusted his glare to Saria, "I'll tell you exactly what to do: fight. There's only one way to fight something like this, you need to get inside of Valani'ile's realm and directly destroy the box. But there are a few things that I need to get out of the way before we jump right into things. First off, destroying this box won't be as easy as destroying a metal box, it was built by a Dark demigod that goes by _The Architect of Ruination_. Any master plan that was made by Ganon was made under the power of The Architect of Ruination. Any evil omen and evil force was constructed by this evil demigod".  
"This _Architect_, Valani'ile, and Gannondorf make up the anti Triforce, yet another evil power that was constructed by The Architect of Ruination. Don't take any of these three lightly, they'll do everything in their power to ensure that none of you will see another day".  
"Finally, don't make any sudden moves without at least considering what they might do. That means that anything that you do that Valani'ile considers destructive will result in him throwing the switch and destroying the world as we know it".

"How will we be able to act at all if Valani'ile holds the key to destruction?" Nabooru asked.

"Think of how you'll handle the situation and be ready to act if it is absolutely necessary for him to throw the switch," Seryd explained. "You'll be able to access a dark realm of your element, you have to destroy whatever is in your path until that realm is pure".  
He unpacked a large suitcase full of different swords and daggers. "I have crafted every single one of you a dagger and sword out of a unique substance that is as light as a feather and as durable as iron: Mythril. Each weapon will adapt to whatever situation it is in and who is holding the weapon. Do be careful not to let these weapons get into the hands of an enemy".

"Excuse me," Saria interjected. "Can we eat breakfast before doing anything?"."Of course," Seryd said. "Whenever I told Link that there would be bacon, ham and pancakes for breakfast, I wasn't lying".

The King looked at his pocket watch, "Breakfast should be here in another 30 minutes". The King could tell that Saria wasn't terribly big on meat, "Saria, I'll request extra pancakes. I can tell that you don't eat meat very much".  
Saria began to feel slightly self conscious, "How can you tell?".  
The King laughed, "You mean to say that you never noticed how you flinch or cringe with any mentioning of meat?".  
Saria huffed, "Now everyone's going to notice how I cringe and flinch like that".  
To her surprise, everyone was quite accepting of Saria not liking meat.  
"It's actually against my culture's beliefs to eat pork," Nabooru explained.  
"Many of my Goron brethren believe that every animal is entitled to life," Darunia cosigned.

No less than 15 minutes later, the chefs came in with a giant plate of pancakes, a square tin of bacon, and a ham that was neatly and symmetrically cut on a ceramic rectangular plate, with cutlery and silverware. The bacon came in slices that were almost as big as the ham slices, neatly arranged on the same type of plate as the the ham, bacon and pancakes were three tins that were labeled, "Maple Syrup,"; "Steak Sauce,"; and the salt and pepper shakers.  
"Please enjoy," the master chef said. They soon departed in a neat and orderly line back to the kitchen.  
The ten of them ate their breakfast; an hour later, they were all ready to take the darkness on.

"Please, come with me," Seryd said. They all grouped together, Seryd told all of them to close their eyes and they began to slowly glow blueish. Less than a minute of waiting, they were all inside of a large Temple.  
It was even more intricate than Hyrule castle, "This is the Temple of Jinoa. There are eight different temples that are arranged in the shape of a large octagon".

"Exquisite," The King commented."It's just like the temples in the valley where I live," Nabooru said.  
"What a sight to see," Saria said. The rest of them commented on the beautiful artistry of the Temple.

"Well then, let's just get on with things," Seryd broke the comments and seemingly endless adoration of the temple. "If you'll follow me, I'll show you to the main alter of this temple".  
He started off with Link and Zelda, "Link and Zelda, your jobs are to ensure that the crystal of balance is still present. Whenever you are teleported to this realm, you would normally see a giant crystal. If you two arrive in a temple with Gothic architecture, then it's your job to recover a small box at the end of the temple".  
Seryd continued speaking, "Trust me, this won't be just a labyrinth. It will likely be crawling with monsters and demons scattered all about. The guardian of the temple wasn't made to be a two hit kill either, so be on your toes whenever you arrive in this realm".

"Got it," Zelda said.  
"Yeah," Link said. "...But what if it's neither?".  
"Then you know that something's definitely wrong," Seryd explained.

Using more spell casting, Seryd muttered a few foreign words and a white colored warp hole opened. "Link, Zelda, enter this warp. It should be exactly where the crystal is hidden".  
Link and Zelda entered the warp and it closed.  
"Are they going to be... safe?" Zelda's father asked.

Seryd nodded, "They're more than equipped with the power to deal with anything that comes their way". he directed his attention towards the other six of them, "The rest of you must ".

He opened another warp, this time it was green, "Saria, it is your job to rid the Forest Temple of it's evil". Saria nodded, holding her thin blade, she walked through the warp.  
Seryd closed the portal, the other portal was red, Darunia stepped up to the temple, "You have my word that I'll ensure that my temple is secured," with his giant blade, he entered the warp.  
The third portal was blue, Ruto walked up to the portal, "As the Queen of the Zora's domain, I made a promise to defend our home to the death," she dove into the portal.  
The fourth portal was magenta and Impa stepped up, "I'll make sure that everything is _normal,_" she walked into the portal.  
The fifth portal was golden, Rauru, not being very talkative walked into the portal. He knew as well as Seryd what he would face.  
The sixth and final portal opened, it was a dark ceder wood color, Nabooru, with two scimitars said, "This won't be a problem". She ran into the portal.

"Wh-where do I go?" Ryouta asked.  
"You have a couple of options, really," Seryd began. "You could go back home to manage your castle just as normal, or you can stay with me. Or, I could come with you back to the castle".  
"Well, I can't just exit the castle," he said. "Why don't I just return to the castle? You may come with me if you like, but there won't be very much to do".  
"Very well, I'll return whenever it is done," Seryd said. "It won't take longer than three days"


	5. Saria

**Saria**

**Little Box of Secrets  
****Dawn of the First Day**

Saria found herself in the sacred meadow, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary just yet. "_I've got to be careful, you never know if something won't just jump out at you_".  
Saria crouched and leaped high into the air and landed square in the middle of the entrance, "I'll kill anything that stands in the way of the peace of this temple!" she warned all the monsters that crept around the Temple.  
With her rapier, she slashed the web of the entrance. She walked into the temple; Saria didn't figure that the temple wouldn't be too difficult to navigate, she knew the temple inside out.

The main foyer was a lot creepier than it used to be, to say the least. But Saria wasn't the least bit scared, "_I've been walking the floors of this beautiful temple since I was a girl, I'm not scared,_" she told herself.  
she started for the main gazebo, but it sunk down and jammed. The entrance to the crystal guardian of the forest was blocked. The four lanterns unlit and the already dark temple became darker, Saria laughed, "_I've seen this happen so many times before, do you think that I don't know my own temple?_".  
she ran for the entrance on the right, it was the garden that she became ever so familiar with, "_I planted those flowers seven years ago_". A deku baba sprouted out of the ground, as if Saria was more than expecting it, she beheaded the deku baba. She moved on, the garden was much different than she remembered.

She first headed for the well, "_I remember hiding an extra key to the main entrance in the well_". She sliced through vines and thorns through the unmanaged garden effortlessly. Sequestered in the surrounding vines that grew over it was the old well, she sliced a deep enough opening to jump down without getting hurt.  
Leaping down, she found Amy, the first poe. She was hiding from something, obviously very fierce and threatening. It was very unlike her to cower from anything.  
"No! No! Please don't hurt me! I'm sorry!" she squealed.  
"Amy! It's me! Saria!" she said, trying to calm her down. "What's wrong? It's so much unlike you to cower like this!".  
"It's back! That thing!" Amy yelled.  
"What thing?" Saria asked. "_I think that she's talking about the guardian of the Forest Emerald_".  
"It's much worse than Gannon! Much Worse! It's a dragon! Covered in thorns and roses!" Amy yelled. "I don't even know if Beth and Joelle are still alive or not!".  
Saria reassured Amy that she would do away with whatever interfered with the peace of the temple. "_I'm not so sure about this, anymore. I'm not as brave as Amy is. She's usually the one that I walked the temple with the first time I saw the temple. I was so scared, and she was the one who helped me through my fears_". Saria spoke, "Don't worry, Amy. I'll fix everything". Before Saria left, she knew that Beth held the key to the torch, but she didn't have a torch this time. "What happened to your torch?".  
"Something took it," Amy said. "But I'm too scared to grab it for myself".  
"_I guess nothing is going to come easy,_" Saria unsheathed her rapier once again. "I won't be long," she said. "I'll be right back, nothing has the rights to infest and desolate the temple like this".  
"Thank you," Amy said. She wasn't as scared as she was, but she still wasn't sure about going back there to whatever stole her torch.

Saria crawled further down the well, "_This well is longer than I remember it being,_" she said. "_This place sure is in fact, different. But it's still in some way... the same,_" she continued crawling and she saw the key that she hid. "Aha! Here it is," she grabbed the key and put it in her pocket for safekeeping.  
"_Now to find the little bastard with Amy's torch,_" Saria said. She didn't have to crawl too much further down the well to find that a huge rat stole Amy's torch. It had long sharp teeth and was horribly mutilated, nevertheless it still hissed and tried to attack Saria.  
she shifted her rapier's blade smaller and quickly beheaded the vermin.  
Saria didn't think that it would be that easy, "_That was a little anticlimactic, but I surely can't complain,_" Saria tried to grab the torch from the rat's grip.  
The veins and tendons that connected the rat's head all fused back together and the rat tried to bite Saria. But before the rat could even touch Saria, the torch was already in her possession.  
"What will it take to do away with you?" Saria pierced through the demon possessed rat's stomach and it began to panic. The rat soon, was drained of all his life force.  
Amy was right behind her, "I couldn't just let you face that rat on your own," she said.  
"Oh Amy, you always were so brave and powerful," Saria said. She handed Amy her torch back.

"I'll light the first torch to the gazebo for you!" Amy flew directly to the main room of the temple. She replaced the green flame on the torch labelled, "Amy," in Hylian.  
"_One down, three to go,_" Saria told herself. "_Now to crawl out of this well,_" Saria had so many memories of being in this well. It was always her hiding place whenever she and, "The girls," as she called them played hide and go seek.  
She vividly remembered talking to Amy about her problems and Amy understanding. She also vividly remembered Amy talking to her about her own problems, they always knew what to say. If not, either Beth or Joelle would give a possible solution.

Saria could always count on at least one of them to have just the right words to say. As she approached the other side of the well, she sliced a circle with her rapier and the vines flew out of her way.

* * *

Saria remembered being distraught, but she didn't exactly know why, she tried as hard as she could to think of what happened that day, but all she could remember was being scared out of her mind. "_I remember! My clothes were tattered and my legs and arms were severely injured. I remember the cold blood dripping down my arms that day, I remember how scared I was, wondering if I had died_".  
She finally remembered, "_I fell down the well, wanting to get more water for the flowers that we had just finished planting. Before Amy and the others were turned into hollows, I remember her needing to get something... but I don't exactly remember what she needed_". Saria determined that it wasn't particularly important, but she did know from her gut that the memory had some important relevance that had to do with the key that she held in her hand. "_But what was so important about the key?_". She thought about it for a couple of minutes, but she couldn't find anything. "_I know that there's something important about this key that I'm holding. My gut is never wrong_".  
Determining that she wouldn't be able to remember as of then, she was confident that the thoughts would clear up as soon as she was less stressed. The most she was stressed out about as of then was finding Beth and Joelle, praying that they hadn't been turned into hollows.  
"_Gods, I hope you two are okay_".

"Let's start with Beth," she said. "Amy, I want you to stay where it's safe. I remember reading about how vulnerable a soul is whenever it's turned into a hollow. I can only pray that Beth and Joelle are still safe". Amy nodded.  
"I've been down here for the past three days," she said. "I think that I'll be safe here".  
With that Saria said, "Goodbye for now, hopefully the next time I see you won't be like this," she said. "Until next time, goodbye," she waved. She crawled back to where she came and found that the vines had grown back, "_No matter, I'll just cut my way through,_" Saria thought to herself. She found herself back in the Garden, this time there were more monsters that swarmed the garden. The most of them where dark spirits, "_The only time I've ever seen this many spirits was back when... my Gods,_" Saria felt as if she knew where the source of evil was coming from. She knew that it would be an easy fix as long as she didn't get tied up with these spirits.  
Saria sliced through most of the spirits, but only the ones that proved to be a nuisance. Arriving back at the entrance to the garden, Saria opened the door again and made her way back into the main room.

Saria never in her life, would associate the Forest Temple with such malice and evil intent. "_The more I see of this temple, the more my fear is confirmed. The good news is that if my fear is confirmed, most of the malicious spirits will go away. That will effectively make it much easier to navigate this place_".  
Saria remembered that Beth's hallway wouldn't be the easiest path to navigate, "_It unfortunately might be a while until I get to them, hopefully I won't have to run in circles. This temple has a history of changing it's layout occasionally. Along with that, I don't know how long it's been or how the temple's changed recently. Let's just hope I didn't jinx anything with that boastful statement that I made earlier_".  
Saria usually tried not to boast like that, she always looked at boasting as "Egotistical and that it was a clear sign that someone wanted to come off as confident but knew that they had to defend their abilities by exaggerating their true abilities". Saria was quite ashamed to say the least, "_I have to remember that there's much more at stake than my reputation. I've got to find the others,_" she said.  
"_I remember a key being in the front room that leads to a larger room that's to the right of the entrance,_" Saria recalled. She entered the room and sliced through the minimal monsters that lurked in the hallway without a sweat. She quickly grabbed the key, "_Let's just hope this key goes to the same room I remember it going through,_" she thought, being ever conscious and nervous over the changes that were made. So far, Saria could spot albeit minimal changes aside from the evil that gathered in the temple.  
She headed to the left and found that the door actually unlocked. To her relief, the door opened, but what she saw was outright horrid. It wasn't the same greenhouse that Saria used to spend most of her time whenever she wasn't practicing her ocarina. "_This looks like the industrial plants that Link told me about whenever he used to learn about how the Hylians crafted their products_". Nonetheless, Saria would pass through the little obstacle that replaced the greenhouse. She sheathed her rapier and climbed the fence, noting that there was a timed crystal, she decided to ignore the crystal for now and come back to it if the time came that she needed the crystal.  
She ran around the thin stone ledge and found a ring of fire, "_Now how in the world will I be able to get rid of that fire?_" Saria decided to go back to the crystal and strike it with her rapier. The crystal's inside filling turned a grey color. Knowing that something had changed, Saria ran over to the ledge and saw that the fire would go back upward and lead Saria to another room, "_This is quite a dangerous room, I can see why Beth and Joelle stayed upstairs while Amy fled her hallway_". The timer on the crystal ran out and as Saria predicted, the flames burst outward getting Saria onto the room of the second floor.  
Saria quickly ran onto the ledge of the second floor and unlocked the door to the second floor of the temple, "_Don't worry Beth, I'm coming for you,_" she thought to herself, feeling the fear that radiated from the hall of her room ever so far away.

* * *

Saria was in Beth's hallway, It curved 90 degrees just like Saria remembered it. She walked to the end of the hall and found Beth's room. Strangely enough, her hallway was nowhere near as dangerous as the rest of the temple, "_This is getting weird, and I just don't trust it,_" Saria said, with a gut wrenching feeling in her stomach. She worked up the guts to knock on Beth's door, "_I just don't think that her room would be as empty, I feel like all of the monsters are clustered about in her room_".  
With no response, Saria knocked on the door again, "Beth?". Saria had no idea what was going on in the room; still no response. Saria took a deep breath to try and calm herself down. She opened the door to a completely normal room, "Beth? Are you in here?". Saria knew that Beth usually hid under her bed, so Saria looked under the bed and found that she was cowering under the bed.  
Beth was more than relieved, whenever she saw Saria, "Saria! I've not seen you in years? What happened to you?". Saria didn't know what to say, she had no idea where she even was or if this was even in the same realm as before.  
"To be honest, I just stepped through a warp hole, determined to rid this temple of all the evil to weaken the force of this switch thing," Saria digressed. She didn't want to further spook Beth with the details.  
"What switch?" she asked.  
"That part doesn't particularly matter," Saria said, covering it up. "What does matter is that I'm here to get rid of whatever is causing this temple to be so strange and unorderly".  
"I tried to go downstairs to the garden where I had planned to spend time with Amy while Joelle wanted to go to the village to see what changed," she said. "I found this room with flames and I thought that the temple was on fire," she said. "I thought that it was impossible, I slammed the door and ran back into the room. That was three days ago".  
"Have you found out what happened?" Saria asked. Beth shook her head, "Something has invaded and infested the temple. A source of evil is attracting monsters and actively changing the temple into something evil. I don't know why the temple is changing this way and what particular object is causing the temple to react this way".

"What do you plan to do?" Beth asked.  
"I need to get to Joelle and ensure that she's okay," Saria said. "The lack of anything evil in this part of the temple just scares me".  
"Is Amy okay?" she asked.  
Saria nodded, "You don't need to worry about Beth, she's hiding in the well. She said that she hasn't encountered anything in the past three days and that she would be fine".  
"She's always so brave," Beth said. "I don't think that I've ever seen her scared or intimidated by anything".  
Saria thought that she was ready to finally bring Beth to relight her torch on the gazebo, "I need you to do something for me," she said. "I know that you sealed off the bottom level so whatever is down there doesn't escape, but I'm going to eventually need to get down to the bottom levels of the temple".

* * *

Whenever she was in the hallway, she saw that there wasn't anything to be afraid of. She saw Amy, running through the hallway just like whenever they used to play together.  
Saria, Amy, and Beth walked back into the main room and she relighted the beacon entitled, "Beth". The room was beginning to look less and less creepy, and more like it was before it was ruined by Valani'ile.  
"Now to find the last girl," Amy said. "Does anyone know where she ran off to?".

"I think she's downstairs," Beth said. "She always goes down there whenever she's scared".  
"Let's make our quickest work out of finding Joelle, she was always spooked by the smallest of things," she said. "I can't begin to imagine how she's taking this".  
She extended her rapier's blade length again and said, "Let's go". The two of them followed Saria as they stepped down the darkest staircase of the entire temple. She tried to be as quiet as possible while the other two followed her close by.  
Saria approached the lower hallway, and at the end was Joelle, in the middle of the hallway. She was in so much, shock that she didn't know what to do or where to go.

"Joelle! Snap out of it, you're safe now!" Amy said, tugging at Joelle. She slowly snapped out of her state of shock and began crying.  
"Please! Saria! You have to slay that thing on the lower level!" she said, occasionally sniffling.  
"Follow me, Joelle," Saria said. "All I need you to do is to light the beacon to fix the gazebo".  
Joelle all but liked the idea of fixing the gazebo entirely, making it possible for that thing to escape. But she knew that it would be better to permanently rid the temple of that beast thing.

"Saria! Night's almost coming!" Amy said. "We'll all be possessed by the darkness if we're not in a safe place!".  
Joelle cosigned Amy, "Beth's room is the safest place! Evil spirits don't like it there for some reason!".  
"Why didn't you all hide in Beth's room?" Saria asked. They headed back up the stair case and into Beth's room.

Beth explained, "I told them that we should spread out in case they break through, anyway," she said. "This darkness and evil seemed to be much stronger than shadow Ganon's evil force. We knew that the monsters would be more difficult to defeat"."Besides, you have to get the boss key to open the door!" Joelle said. "You know were it is, don't you?".  
"Yes, I do," Saria said, pridefully. "I know this temple inside out and I _will_ make sure that you girls as well as the animals of this temple are no longer in danger of Valani'ile".  
"Thank you," Amy, Beth and Joelle said, one after the other.  
"It's my job as the sage of this temple," Saria said. She left Beth's room, "_I'm going to put an end to this, no matter how long it takes_".

Saria exited Beth's room after making sure that they were comfortable being there for the next few days. She went down the hall that she found Joelle and made a left at the end of the hall. "_For some reason, the girls never wanted to open this door. I remember asking them what was in that door, and I never got an answer_". She put her hand on the door knob and found that it was locked, "Dammi_t, it's locked. I remember Joelle saying that the door was locked, anyway. I guess I'm going to soon find out what's in there and why they were so afraid of this room_".  
She backtracked all the way back to the forked hallway and went down where Joelle's side was. It was filled with monsters, Saria rushed right for them. They didn't stand a chance against Saria, she had taught Link about swordplay after one of his friends repeatedly told him about how he wished he had a sword.

Soon, all of the monsters that crowded the room were gone, "_That wasn't a challenge, at all_". Saria tried not to get too cocky, nonetheless. "_Like I said before, you'll never know if something won't just jump out at you_".  
She didn't want to jinx herself, either. She walked slowly down the hallway, alert for anything out of the ordinary. Of course, besides the fact that the entire temple had been rearranged. So far, nothing was too strange, but she felt something very different about this side of the hallway. "_They were right, the monsters of this temple prefer this hallway over Beth's. I wonder why?_" she went into Beth's room. There was definitely a very strong presence of something evil, but Saria couldn't quite put her finger on it.  
"_I feel the presence, in her pillow. There's something evil in her pillow,_" Saria reached into Beth's pillow, her heart pounding with fear. What she pulled out of Joelle's pillow was enough to make Saria's heart stop. "A pentagram?!" she was so surprised that someone like Joelle would posses such a wicked object.  
Saria simply couldn't believe it, "_I know that someone as sensitive as Joelle would never even think of possessing a pentagram. If so, then I'm sure that she just thought that it looked pretty or something,_" Saria thought to herself.  
She needed to destroy it, "_This necklace is probably the reason behind all of these weird things happening. I read in a book that Link had that not all pentagrams were evil. But the ones that were evil could be sensed by elves and monsters alike from a mile away. That means that i have to destroy this one,_" she through the pentagram on the floor and stomped on it.  
The pendant shattered into pieces and she could tell that the haunting spirits fled from the temple. Still, Saria had that same unsure feeling that she had whenever she entered the temple. The same feeling that she had whenever she was just a girl.  
"_It looks like only a couple of demons left, this hall especially seems a lot less strange. But at the same time, I feel as if the monsters that have infested this dungeon... replaced those things that were being summoned from the pentagram_".

She approached the doorway of Beth's room, leading into a hall of darkness. "_It seems as if they're still there. I guess destroying that pentagram didn't do me any good_". Saria studied all of the shadows that lurked in the hallways, "_I'm guessing that I have to destroy the main source of this evil_".  
Saria went back into the hallway and knew that destroying the pentagram didn't help one bit, she cursed in anger. she went back into the main hall and into another one of the jointed hallways and found a key in the middle of the floor, Saria knew that it was the key to the forbidden room, "_That's it!_". She put the key in the same pocket as the first key.  
She hurried out of that hallway, through Joelle's hallway and back into the hallway with the room that the three of them never wanted to have anything to do with. Saria took a deep breath and exhaled it, "_Time to answer the question that I've had for such a long time,_" she reached for the key and determined that it was the one that see picked up off of the floor, and she inserted the key into the keyhole.  
"Now, the moment of truth," she opened up the doorway. It was the door that led to one of the temple's basements.

Saria knew that the temple had multiple rooms for a basement and this was one of many. She walked down the creaky stairs and prayed for safety; she was now more scared than she had ever been. "_I don't even know what this room looks like, but I know that I won't be able to satisfy my suspicion if I don't take the opportunity_".  
At the bottom of the stairs, an elderly old man sits in a rocking chair. He looked as if he had been waiting for Saria, "I see my pet rat has given you the key to my entire world: this room," he spoke with a shaky and elderly voice. Saria didn't have a good feeling from this man, at all. "That key that you found in the middle of the hallway, jointed to the hallway with Joelle's room. Please give it to me after you lock the door," he said.  
"I've been kept down here for my own good," he said. He frowned in sadness, "I don't want to kill any more people than I already have".  
Saria went back up the stairs, locked the door, "_Why the hell am I doing this? The door could close on me and I'd be this room's next victim!_" she threw the key down the stairs and Saria slammed the door behind her. "_My Gods! That was a murderer! My Gods! My Gods! My Gods!_" Saria exclaimed. She ran far away from that door.

She ran out of the hallway and into one of the rooms that was an actual recognizable room from the Forest Temple that she knew all too well. It was one of the rooms that would eventually lead to the source of the evil that lurked in this hell of a temple.  
Saria knew that it was getting late, so she decided to get some sleep before taking the crystal guardian on. "_I sure hope that I don't have to continue doing this for too long,_" Saria said. "_It surprises me how Link can just do these quests one by one without getting so tired all the time!_". Saria stopped running and decided to save her energy, she knew that she wouldn't have a bunch of time to sleep. She had to take into consideration that Valani'ile could destroy everything, "_Just because I'm running that risk doesn't mean I don't need sleep, at all_".

Saria also wondered how Link could save the entire neighboring country of Termina in less than four days, "_I guess if you're the 4th incarnation of the Hero of Time, you get pretty good at it_". Saria had arrived at Joelle's hallway, she opened the door to the girls sleeping, "_Good idea,_" Saria yawned. She decided that she would sleep for no longer than six hours before continuing.  
She closed her eyes and within seconds, she fell asleep.

* * *

Saria looked at the clock, six hours and ten minutes had gone by. "10 o' Clock, _I'll take it for what it is,_" Saria got right back up and decided that she would finally go get the first key that led to the arrows.  
"_Since Beth does enjoy archery, so it won't be hard getting a few arrows,_" Saria said. She remembered that a lot of the temple was locked by arrow activated locks. "_But where to find the fairy bow,_" she thought. Saria knew that the fairy bow wasn't in the same place as she remembered, the layout was all the way too different from what she remembers. She could only hope that the temple is fixed whenever she retrieves the box and destroys it.  
She headed from Beth's room to the end of the hallway and up the staircase to the room where the arrows would normally be, "_Before, the arrows were directly in this room. I suppose that they are now somewhere else_". Saria opened the door regardless. "_It doesn't hurt one bit to at least see if the bow could be there_".

She entered the room, and she wasn't surprised to see that the arrows weren't there. But she was surprised to see something else, a ring inside of a box. Saria walked closer to the alter, "_This looks like a trap_". Avoiding her temptation, she didn't observe the ring and quickly exited that room and shut the door. She walked out of the main hallway and down the left wing of the hall way to see if anything beneficial or notable would be there.  
She started for the first door on her left, "_Let's see what we have here_". She tried to open the door, "_Locked..., maybe there's a key somewhere close by?_".  
She headed for the second door, she tried to open it and led to a bigger room. This time, it was a room that Saria recognized, "_I remember this giant room, I used to play tag with the girls, all those years ago. I wonder if maybe I can make my way back to more recognizable grounds if I head back the normal way?_".  
Saria climbed through the first parts of the room and eventually made her way to the door that would be to her right, "_If I enter this room, I should get close to the garden again and make my way back_".

She headed through the door and She was in the left part of the garden, at the top of the ledge. Saria concluded that this was the right version of the temple, "That works," she said. She exited the the garden and found herself in the exact same room that she started in.  
But Saria could clearly tell that it was the same old dungeon, "_Dammit, I'm not close enough to be able to navigate this dungeon regularly. Oh well, it won't be long until this dungeon gets restored back to it's original form_".  
It was strange to Saria, the more she progressed and the more parts of the dungeon she navigated, the less different the dungeon looked and all the more like the original temple that Saria ran away to play with the three ghosts. Saria opened the same door that would've led her through a hallway and to a roo

Saria remembered being distraught, but she didn't exactly know why, she tried as hard as she could to think of what happened that day, but all she could remember was being scared out of her mind. "_I remember! My clothes were tattered and my legs and arms were severely injured. I remember the cold blood dripping down my arms that day, I remember how scared I was, wondering if I had died_".  
She finally remembered, "_I fell down the well, wanting to get more water for the flowers that we had just finished planting. Before Amy and the others were turned into hollows, I remember her needing to get something... but I don't exactly remember what she needed_". Saria determined that it wasn't particularly important, but she did know from her gut that the memory had some important relevance that had to do with the key that she held in her hand. "_But what was so important about the key?_". She thought about it for a couple of minutes, but she couldn't find anything. "_I know that there's something important about this key that I'm holding. My gut is never wrong_".  
Determining that she wouldn't be able to remember as of then, she was confident that the thoughts would clear up as soon as she was less stressed. The most she was stressed out about as of then was finding Beth and Joelle, praying that they hadn't been turned into hollows.  
"_Gods, I hope you two are okay_".

"Let's start with Beth," she said. "Amy, I want you to stay where it's safe. I remember reading about how vulnerable a soul is whenever it's turned into a hollow. I can only pray that Beth and Joelle are still safe". Amy nodded.  
"I've been down here for the past three days," she said. "I think that I'll be safe here".  
With that Saria said, "Goodbye for now, hopefully the next time I see you won't be like this," she said. "Until next time, goodbye," she waved. She crawled back to where she came and found that the vines had grown back, "_No matter, I'll just cut my way through,_" Saria thought to herself. She found herself back in the Garden, this time there were more monsters that swarmed the garden. The most of them where dark spirits, "_The only time I've ever seen this many spirits was back when... my Gods,_" Saria felt as if she knew where the source of evil was coming from. She knew that it would be an easy fix as long as she didn't get tied up with these spirits.  
Saria sliced through most of the spirits, but only the ones that proved to be a nuisance. Arriving back at the entrance to the garden, Saria opened the door again and made her way back into the main room.

Saria never in her life, would associate the Forest Temple with such malice and evil intent. "_The more I see of this temple, the more my fear is confirmed. The good news is that if my fear is confirmed, most of the malicious spirits will go away. That will effectively make it much easier to navigate this place_".  
Saria remembered that Beth's hallway wouldn't be the easiest path to navigate, "_It unfortunately might be a while until I get to them, hopefully I won't have to run in circles. This temple has a history of changing it's layout occasionally. Along with that, I don't know how long it's been or how the temple's changed recently. Let's just hope I didn't jinx anything with that boastful statement that I made earlier_".  
Saria usually tried not to boast like that, she always looked at boasting as "Egotistical and that it was a clear sign that someone wanted to come off as confident but knew that they had to defend their abilities by exaggerating their true abilities". Saria was quite ashamed to say the least, "_I have to remember that there's much more at stake than my reputation. I've got to find the others,_" she said.  
"_I remember a key being in the front room that leads to a larger room that's to the right of the entrance,_" Saria recalled. She entered the room and sliced through the minimal monsters that lurked in the hallway without a sweat. She quickly grabbed the key, "_Let's just hope this key goes to the same room I remember it going through,_" she thought, being ever conscious and nervous over the changes that were made. So far, Saria could spot albeit minimal changes aside from the evil that gathered in the temple.  
She headed to the left and found that the door actually unlocked. To her relief, the door opened, but what she saw was outright horrid. It wasn't the same greenhouse that Saria used to spend most of her time whenever she wasn't practicing her ocarina. "_This looks like the industrial plants that Link told me about whenever he used to learn about how the Hylians crafted their products_". Nonetheless, Saria would pass through the little obstacle that replaced the greenhouse. She sheathed her rapier and climbed the fence, noting that there was a timed crystal, she decided to ignore the crystal for now and come back to it if the time came that she needed the crystal.  
She ran around the thin stone ledge and found a ring of fire, "_Now how in the world will I be able to get rid of that fire?_" Saria decided to go back to the crystal and strike it with her rapier. The crystal's inside filling turned a grey color. Knowing that something had changed, Saria ran over to the ledge and saw that the fire would go back upward and lead Saria to another room, "_This is quite a dangerous room, I can see why Beth and Joelle stayed upstairs while Amy fled her hallway_". The timer on the crystal ran out and as Saria predicted, the flames burst outward getting Saria onto the room of the second floor.  
Saria quickly ran onto the ledge of the second floor and unlocked the door to the second floor of the temple, "_Don't worry Beth, I'm coming for you,_" she thought to herself, feeling the fear that radiated from the hall of her room ever so far away.

"_Interesting, the temple likes to change it's way around. I'm not entirely sure if the change is completely random, but I'm confident that there's got to be some sort of pattern,_" Saria told herself. She entered the first door to the right and found herself in another large room that she was completely unfamiliar with, "_I'm not sure if I've ever seen a room like this before in my entire life. Maybe if i try to find another door and continue to do so, I'll find another room that I'm familiar with_".  
This room still crawled with vile ghosts, she drew her rapier, prepared to slash through anything that proved to be too dangerous.  
Only a few minor threats were detected by Saria, but she was too fast for them and they were already dead. Saria saw a door, she entered through the door to find that there was yet another room that Saria recognized: the other half of the garden, "_Bingo, here's another place that I vividly remember_". Saria could only hope that she'd start entering more rooms that were actually part of the temple.

To Saria's approval, she reached another quite important room, normally where another key would be found. Saria saw a wall of pure inferno heading straight for her. She skillfully and effortlessly leaped over the lava and onto the platforms to the other side of the room, she climbed the fence and opened the chest. Saria was under the impression that it would be a map, but she found something that was even more useful: A bow.  
Unfortunately, she forgot to ask Beth for her quiver of arrows, "_Damn it all, I forgot to ask Beth if I use borrow her quiver and arrows_". Saria calmed herself and determined that she would go the normal way the temple was meant to be laid out.

She entered the next room and it was the room that held the arrows, however there were no chests in that area. "_Aside from the lack of a chest, everything looks to be good, for now at least_". She headed to the door where Beth usually resided and there it was, the hallway where her room was, "_Wonderful! The temple is starting to repair itself! I can finally start to navigate around this place with more of an idea of where I'm going!_".  
She ran down the hallway and opened the door to her room. "Beth, can I ask you for something?".  
"What is it?" she replied. "I assume that you want to use my arrows and quiver?".  
"Exactly!" Saria said.  
"You may," she said.  
"Great news! The temple is starting to look normal again!" Saria said.  
But the three of them weren't cheering. Beth said, "The temple isn't normal, that's what it wants you to think".  
Saria was speechless, "_What? Was that really a trick? Why would 'it', whatever 'it' is help me like this?_".

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner," Beth said. "I thought that you would've already knew that the evil force that curses this temple wouldn't keep it the same way. I can't even fully navigate the thousands upon thousands of rooms, there are so many different dimensions that this temple connects to".  
Beth felt bad telling Saria the unfortunate news, she knew that the fact of the world's fate leaning on her decisions were enough bad news. "If you manage to find the map, you'll be able to find the rooms that you wanna go to. Until then, not even your instincts and judgement will be able to lead you the way to the rooms that you need to go to".  
"So that means that for now, I should drop anything that isn't connected to finding that map," Saria determined.  
"It's going to be your only hope of getting rid of the evil in this temple and sealing the alternate dimensions that Valani'ile added," Beth replied.

"_That may take a while,_" Saria said. "_It could be days, or as little as minutes before I recover the map_".  
"I forgot to add, the map is in the same chest that it would've normally been in," Beth said at the last minute. This bit of advice was almost as helpful as her explaining that the map would make navigating so much easier.  
Saria thanked them for everything, "Thank you all for helping me, I don't know where I'd be without you," Saria said. She waved goodbye and made her way back into the twisted multidimensional labyrinth that was the forest temple.  
"_The map would be in the room after the joint of Beth's hallway ends,_" Saria told herself. "_We'll see where this takes me,_" Saria normally loved things that involved actively learning through trial and error, but this was flat out stressful. She didn't know if entering back and forth between rooms in a circle would all lead to different rooms of the temple or not.

Reaching the end of the hallway to the shoulder, Saria crossed her fingers and prayed for the best, entering the room. Not surprised at all by the fact that the room wasn't the right room, all Saria could do was the same thing she's been doing the entire time: backtrack until she found a recognizable room and enter through the door that would lead her to the destination she wanted.  
"I_ can't complain about the lack of enemies, it's certainly a lot better than everything being clustered with tough monsters of some sort. Seryd told Link and Zelda that it wasn't going to be just an idle labyrinth with little to no monsters, but this is exactly what I'm getting. What could this mean?_".  
She reached the garden again, it looked exactly like Saria remembered it, "Is this the real version of the garden?" Saria asked, astonished. It didn't look the slightest bit cursed nor did it have the same old creepy feel that Saria had grown used to. No, it was exactly as it was whenever Saria had first discovered the temple. "This is where I first met Amy," Saria recalled the time she first found this place. She recalled the horrible fight she had, how distraught she was.  
She began to relive all of the feelings and hurt emotions that she felt all those years ago.

* * *

Saria was the last to speak before she left her own house, slamming the door in a blind rage. "Well if you really wished that, then I'm just going to leave forever!" Saria said, in a fit of tears. "I don't care if you'll ever miss me! After all you've said, I don't want to have _anything_ to do with you anymore!" she concluded, slamming the door.  
"_How could anyone say such rude things?_". Saria decided to run away in the lost woods, "_I'll never have to deal with such a rude person ever again_". She followed the sound of a piper playing a tune that she'd soon learn to play and would play all the time.  
She kept running passed the entrance teleporting door that led to Goron city and into a meadow. She didn't stop there, she was determined to get as far away from the forest as possible, so she started through the maze of bushes until she found a giant staircase. However, she was too distraught to notice and continued onward. At the end was an entrance to the temple, she ran through the doors, slamming them behind her until she found a garden full of fruits and vegetables.  
"There, now I won't _ever_ have to interact with anyone ever again!" she cried.

Soon enough, Amy, while in her initial spirit form before being cursed by Ganon, approached her. Her opacity was high enough that Saria couldn't notice. She couldn't stand the thought of anyone crying, "What's wrong, young one?" she asked, being hundreds of years older than Saria.  
Saria, without even noticing that there was something out of the ordinary told her of a fight with another Kokiri child that was the worst she had ever had. She told her of the harsh things that the children said to her, in anger. Concluding with her slamming the door of her own house and finding herself in the meadow.  
Amy was saddened by Saria's suffering. "I'm so sorry they were like that around you," she said. "I promise that I'll treat you with the same respect that I would want. Besides, I wouldn't hurt you even if I didn't know that you were abused like this".  
Saria, whom was still sniffling said, "Th-Thank you...". She smiled and introduced herself, "I'm Amy, I live here with my three other friends: Joelle and Beth," she said. "Whenever you're here, you don't have to worry about any harsh treatment". Amy hardly even knew Saria, but she still loved her as dearly as any of her other friends; and just as if Beth or Joelle had been treated so poorly, Amy hugged Saria in the midst of her crying. She said things like, "Friends say things they don't mean to each other," or "It'll get better".  
Saria, being as loving and as caring as she is, was also sad at how irresponsibly she handled the situation. All she could do, was hope that they could forgive her for raising such tension amongst her friends.  
"I hope that they're not still angry at me...," Saria cried. "I wouldn't blame them if they didn't ever want to see the likes of me ever again, I just can't believe that I sunk down that far". It was at that moment that she noticed that Amy was slightly transparent, "Are you... a ghost?". Amy could however, tell that Saria wasn't afraid. She had a look of sadness, her parents probably lost her while she was young. She couldn't possibly be too much older than 12 years.  
Amy nodded, Saria was the only Kokiri who wasn't either scared of her or treated her as a malicious ghost, "I died 150 years ago, my parents lost me whenever I was 10 years old to the plague". Amy wasn't sad, anymore; her parents were long gone and she's since gotten used to living with Beth and Joelle, two other victims of the plague those long years ago.  
"I'm so sorry," Saria said. She felt bad, complaining about her own issues whenever she died so young, "Here I am, complaining about seemingly petty issues whenever you never saw adulthood," she realized how ridiculous she was for being angry at her friends. "I should be comforting you, Amy".

Amy got back up and motioned for Saria to get back up, "I don't want you to be sad anymore, Saria," she said. "So I'll introduce you to my friends, they usually spend their time inside our house". Saria gave a strange expression, Amy knew that it sounded strange to Saria that they called the temple their _house_.  
"House?" Saria asked. "You do in fact, live here after all. So I suppose that I shouldn't be too confused".  
"I know that it isn't very usual," she said. "But we all wanted some place to go so that no one would have to be scared by us and shove us away from them, people can be very harsh to one another".  
Saria couldn't understand being shoved away, all of the Kokiri children lived like family and there was no such thing as a stranger. She knew every Kokiri child that resided in the forest save for a few runaways that were older than she is. "I wish I could understand what that was like, all the children of the forest know each other by name and have talked to each other. Of course, not all of them are the nicest, but we've never shoved them away".  
"I'm lucky that I don't have any friends that I fight with, I couldn't imagine having any disagreements with Beth nor Joelle," she said. "We're all like sisters, we can all understand each other and at least one of us know what to say when we're not going through the best of times," she said. "I'm just fortunate enough to know that I don't have to work in factories like the poor villagers just passed the Zora's river". Amy remembered the tragic stories of children laboring for less than a green rupee a day and as little as 5 rupees a week for 70 work hours, "My father used to tell me stories of children dying, trying to feed themselves and how the Hylians used to be so selfish and greedy. Now that's unfortunate, at least I didn't die from a textile machine".  
"I guess that's one way of looking at it," Saria said. "Regardless, I didn't even know that children really slaved over textile machines, I thought those were just scary stories written by authors from the kingdom. I never knew that poor people really existed in this world".  
"Not these days, From what I've lately heard, people in Hyrule castle town are more respectful and grateful. They increased weekly wages to the people of Kakariko and stopped making it necessary to work children to death," Amy said. "Those were the ways of the past, nonetheless, the ruthless ways of the past". Saria was back in the main room of the temple.

* * *

Saria was on the top ledge of the forest temple, "_Now I've just got to get into that room again, but how do I get there?_". In her head, it made more sense to go back to the main room of the temple and go back through Beth's hall to the room that contained the arrows. Lately, Saria was seeing a lot of switches that the arrows would allow access to other rooms.  
Link told her how helpful the arrows really were back in the alternate time line. He said that he used the arrows to not only to reverse either Beth's or Joelle's hallway, in order to access the boss key to the dungeon, but to access many other parts of the dungeon more easily.  
Saria figured that the arrows would do her a world of good, but she needed to find the real room that was in the real Forest Temple. "_Given that knowledge, it'll be much less difficult to find the room that I want,_" she thought.  
She leaped down and broke her fall by rolling, she proceeded to head the same way back to Beth's hallway, where she would first retrieve the map. To her relief, everything looked normal, so far.  
"_Everything looks good, there's a good chance that I'm back in the real forest temple,_" Saria thought. "That's not to say that I could very well have to navigate several rooms," she said. Saria, with her hopes getting higher and higher, she entered through the door left to the entrance.  
Things were turning out quite well for Saria, "_I can't keep my hopes too high. For all I know, I might not even be close to my destination_". Saria thought for a minute, "_I wonder if I'll be able to get to my destination if I convince myself that the next door won't be just another room?_".  
Testing that theory, Saria walked through the room that led to the second floor and found herself not in Beth's hallway, but Joelle's hallway, "_I suppose it works well enough,_" she said.  
She was getting terribly close to her desired destination, she reached the end of the hall and found the door already open, seemingly just waiting to be walked through.  
"_I'll just get the map really quick and head back to Beth's bedroom to sleep another six hours,_" Saria thought. She walked to the room that contained the map, she leaped over the fence and opened the chest. Expecting a map, she got a key, "_Where could this key possibly go?_" Saria asked, in frustration. "_Oh well, I'm too tired to complain. I guess I'll just go to sleep for the night and continue in the morning. I never thought that merely 12 hours of activity could be so exhausting_".

* * *

One morning, Saria decided that she would go back to the temple to get to know the three children better. She left a note at her bed, saying that she was going to go on a walk in the forest. She didn't think that she would need a note so the whole forest won't go looking for her. But at the same time, Saria was still going to be prepared for any scenario.  
She walked out of her forest, just hours before any child ever got out. She only had to deal with one or two night dwellers, but they probably didn't particularly care anyway. Making sure that she wasn't drawing too much attention, Saria crept her way to the entrance of the Lost Woods.  
She then ran through the first three parts of the woods so that the Kokiri children couldn't follow her if they ever wanted to. Saria then walked through the rest of the path, enjoying the serene atmosphere of the woods in the early hours. It was almost a completely different place before the sun rose. It was crawling with the foxes, squirrels, bunnies and other animals during the day, effectively making the woods more noisy and blocked out the silence in the woods. During the night, not even the crickets could be heard.  
Saria's footsteps echoed far in the blank morning.

After about 30 minutes of taking in the wonderful atmosphere, she arrived at the entrance. She walked up the marble stairs, her footsteps echoing louder than the dirt which absorbed a lot of the shock of her boots contacting the ground. She opened the door and went back into the garden. "Amy!" she called out. "I'm here!".  
Within seconds, Amy, Beth, and Joelle arrived in the garden.  
"Are you ready?" Beth asked. Saria nodded, they were going to play a game of hide and seek. Since the night was dead silent, it would be harder for the persons hiding to stay hidden. Saria counted to three and they all went away to hide, their footsteps echoing loudly in the cold and blank night. With her eyes closed, she counted to one hundred, "Ready or not, here I come!" Saria's words echoed throughout the entire forest. She was sure that it could be heard as far as from Kakariko Village.  
In the dark, the first thing that Saria did was enter back into the warmth of the temple. She now had to make the decision of where she would look. Contrary to what she thought, their sounds couldn't be heard while her footsteps on the soft stone echoed loudly enough for Saria to flinch every time she took another step.  
She decided that she would take a right into the green house to see where anyone was. Saria knew where Beth usually hid, so she decided to walk up the stairs that lay off to the side and to the second level of the temple. She looked all around the twisted hallway and in her room just to see if she decided to hide in an obvious place to trick Saria. She wasn't there, her other hiding place was in the room that unlocked the greenhouse door. She didn't think to visit that place first, so she decided to check the fountain out to the right at the end of the hallway to see if she had went into the water to hide.

Only to find not Beth, but Amy hiding in the closet, "I found you!" Saria said. Amy screamed in shock, "Now you have to find the rest of us!".  
"I'm surprised you didn't find Beth first seeing as how she isn't the best at hiding," she said.  
They both left and they walked together back to the garden to start over. She found Beth and Joelle already there, seeing as how they heard Amy's scream and them laughing.  
"I heard what you said about me!" she said. Saria and the rest all laughed.  
"It's true!" Joelle said.  
"Not lately! I have good hiding places!" Beth said, lightheartedly.  
"We'll see this time," Amy said. She counted to three and they all ran off to hide. After counting to 100. It was Amy's turn to find Saria, Beth and Joelle.  
Saria was confident that she chose the best hiding place, she thought that no one would ever guess to look inside the chest that held Beth's bow. She hardly even goes into the room. She could only hope that Amy didn't hear her open the chest and close it. "_I never thought that my heart would race so fast in such an otherwise, peaceful place,_" Saria thought to herself.  
Meanwhile, Beth continued to hide in the same place as she did before: the well. She thought that no one would ever find her.  
Joelle was hiding under a chair that was placed in her closet, obscured by a stack of neatly folded clothes.  
Amy was currently still on the first floor, listening closely for any sounds that she could make out. So far, there was nothing to be heard. She decided to start off with the room that was just under the room that Saria was in. She stood in there for a long time, but she shrugged it off, "I know that Saria wouldn't choose such an obvious hiding place," she said. Saria mostly hid on the second floor so that she could randomly hide in the first floor, actively making it nearly impossible for Saria to be found. She made the decision that she would hide on the first floor so that none of the girls would spot her.  
Amy started in Joelle's room, she looked all around her room: Under her two bedside tables, under the bed and even in the closet where she hid. She didn't notice her under the chair, Joelle's heart skipped a beat whenever she noticed that Amy couldn't see her. She exhaled a deep breath of relief, making Amy pause right where she stood. Beth couldn't even take another breath comfortably, ever self conscious of her breathing that seemed noisy to her.  
Whenever she concluded that no one was in her room, she made sure not to make any obvious noise.  
After a long while of searching both the first and second floor, Amy decided to check the outside of the temple in the garden. "_I haven't seen Beth anywhere, she's probably hiding in the garden_". She searched through the various parts of the garden and decided to go down to the well.  
Beth knew that she would get caught, so she just waited for Amy to run into her in the absolute darkness. There wouldn't be any way to get away from Beth without her becoming visible in plain sight.  
Amy ran into Beth and to that, she yelled, "I found you!".  
Saria snickered as she crawled out of the chest and exited the room that contained Beth's arrows.  
They all grouped back together in the garden, they had noticed that the morning was going to come soon. So they decided to play one more game before doing something else.

* * *

**Dawn of the Second Day**

Saria woke up from a dream of another one of her memories, "_I could remember a time whenever I never really associated this place with creepy, but I'll never really see this place as the same ever again_". She rose out of bed, "_I need to see where this key goes to_". She walked straight back to the room that led to Saria's room, she remembered what the room was supposed to be. This time, it was filled with dark spirits and a strange ladder that goes downward, "_There's a switch on the top of this door!_". Saria aimed an arrow at the eye and shot it, she re-entered the door and the hallway no longer spun 90 degrees, "_If I'm not mistaken, the room that now comes after this held the key to the underground parlor!".  
"This must mean that I'll be able to soon vanquish the source of all of this evil!_" Saria said, in a hopeful tone. She ran to the other side of the hallway and found herself in a strange room with a chest that looked much different from all the other chests that she's seen before.  
She tried to open it, "_Locked, I wonder if that key that I got yesterday would unlock this chest?_". She applied the key to the keyhole of the decorated chest, the lock made a click and revealed a key that was much larger than all the rest of them. "_This is it!_". Saria grabbed the key and went back to Beth's room to tell them the good news. Arriving there, she opened the door to neither Amy nor Beth nor Joelle to be seen anymore.

Saria's heart skipped a beat, "_Where are they?! Did they leave the room?!_". She couldn't believe what she was seeing, it was too much for her heart to handle. Saria felt her head getting lighter and lighter, "_No... I've got to get... rid of this monster before I go back to sleep_," Saria was too dazed to be able to make sense out of what was really happening. She chugged on as fast as she could, trying desperately to get back to the main room. She couldn't feel her body, and her vision had been reduced to a dim blur. The last thing that she saw before passing out was her beginning to fall on to the ground.

Valani'ile laughed at Saria, "You didn't believe that you would slip through my fingers that easily, did you? Foolish girl, it isn't wise to take me so widely. I can send this world into eternal destruction and desolation whenever I please it!".

Seryd noticed that something had gone wrong, "_Damn, what happened? Saria!_" he cursed. He quickly arose and went into the warp that Saria had stepped in. He ran through the temple until he found Saria on the ground, "Saria! Wake up!" he tried to awaken Saria. He felt for a pulse, Saria was just knocked out cold.  
He knew just what had happened, "Damn, he threw the switch," Seryd said. "Don't worry Saria, I'll fix everything!" he picked Saria up and carried her home. "_I didn't think he would be so quick to throw the switch like that_".

* * *

Meanwhile, Saria woke up in a vast, deep forest that was menacing looking. The trees were the strangest thing about the forest: they seemed to all have faces. "This is weird," she said. "_Am I in the dark world? This accurately fits Link's description of this harsh and desolate wasteland_".  
She hid behind one of the strange trees, being ever watchful for some demonic looking soldiers that guarded the perimeter. She pulled out her bow and shot three arrows at two of them, they both fell down and the other two tried to rush for Saria. They all tried to stab Saria with their pitchforks, but Saria dodged them and beheaded them both without effort.  
She continued north east towards the first segment of this version of the forest temple. Saria thought that the first initial segment was the whole temple. "_This place is a great deal smaller than anything I think I've ever seen_". Entering the second room, Saria found that there was a key lying around idle in that room followed by the same design of a pentagram that was in Joelle's drawer. "_While keys are always helpful, I can't help but to notice the peculiar pendant shaped alter that resembles the pentagram that Joelle kept hidden under her drawer_".  
It wasn't very long until he heard faint voices, "That's Link's voice! And some other boy's voice!" Saria exclaimed. "_I just don't trust it, though. How do I know if I'm not just being tricked, this Valani'ile sure knows his way around. And I'm afraid I just don't know enough to trust anything_".  
Saria was quick to scavenge the small temple to get whatever she needs, opening a locked door that didn't hold anything particularly interesting. However, the faint voice of Link and another that sounded strikingly familiar continued to echo throughout the forest. Lost in trying to figure out just exactly who the other child was, a demon tried to attack Saria. Luckily, she avoided getting hurt with a minor tear in her clothing.  
"_I've got to be more careful_". Saria exited the temple and wanted to explore further through the woods, "_If I'm not mistaken, the master sword shouldn't be too far away. It's just a little bit north west from here_". Saria wasn't exactly sure why she wanted to head for the master sword, but she felt like she would be able to uncover something particularly important if she made it a point to visit the normal world.  
"_I can still hear Link's voice, it's getting louder_". She was getting very close to the source of Link's conversation and she was soon able to hear Link saying, "Vio". "_Is that the other child? I think I may have heard his name floating around somewhere, but I somehow can't place any sort of evidence on it_".

Arriving to the alter where the Master Sword was, she found that it was empty, "_This is definitely strange, there are no pendants placed in the engravings. I've never seen this happen before. Not even Link, the person whom the blade was crafted for would be able to bypass such limitations_".  
"_Whatever it is, I'm coming after it to set things straight,_" Saria knelt down with her rapier taking the form of the sword that once lay in the alter. She chanted a few ancient Hylian incantations and she soon was transported back to the realm of the living. "_Now, to find where all of that talking is coming from,_" Saria began following the echoes.  
She began to make out more and more words, "Is that really Link? I thought he was with Zelda, trying to secure the crystal of light!". Saria knew that voice from anywhere and it was definitely Link, "_Maybe he can assist me in my quest! If anyone would know exactly what to do, it would be Link_". She followed the voices until she reached the entrance of the lost woods, Saria saw Link talking with another Kokiri that was dressed in violet.  
"_Is that a doppelgänger of some sort? It can't be, doppelgängers can't form fluent speech. It would take too much energy, nonetheless I've got to get to know the other one better_". Saria followed them through the entrance of the Lost Woods. "Link," she called.  
"How did you get here?" Link asked, rather startled by Saria's seemingly sudden appearance.  
"Who is this?" Vio asked.  
"She's Saria," Link explained. "And this is Vio, he's here to help me try to bring two other lost children back to life," Link introduced Saria and Vio.  
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Saria said.  
"Hello, there," Vio said. "I may not know who you are, but you are armed and could very well be the difference between our death and our victory".  
Saria was rather flattered, "Well, I did teach Link everything he knows".  
"Not everything," Link huffed.  
"Most," Saria corrected herself. "I actually came here because I could hear the two of you talking while I was in the Dark World".  
"What kind of business would someone like you have in the Dark World?" Vio asked. "You don't look like the kind of person that would have any interest in that gods awful place".  
"I'm the sage of the forest," she said. "...And it's my job as the sage to make sure that the forest is rid of all evil presence".  
"If you wouldn't mind doing your job by helping us, I'm sure you'd ease the process," Vio said. "With a sage by our side, the forest will be much easier".  
"Come on," Vio said. "I know the way to the forest crystal".  
"_This may very well be the key to the balance of the forest crystal, I'm sure of it. I just pray that the Forest Temple is no longer demented and evil_".  
"I can't guarantee that, exactly," Vio replied. "We're not headed to the Forest Temple just yet, we're going to the Hyrule Castle to recover the souls of Red and Blue. Don't expect a brilliant and warm welcome, that place is absolutely crawling with possessed soldiers. We're going for Gannon, he's a small part of Valani'ile: The God of Darkness. Link has faced him many times. Can you help us defeat him first?".  
"Definitely," Saria said. "Will you help me on my personal quest?".  
"Yeah," Link said. "You're doing us a favor by assisting us like this".  
"The only thing is, I don't have more than the rest of today and tomorrow to get this done," Saria said. "I hope that's not too much of a setback, is it?".  
"Absolutely not," Vio said. "_What a charming young lady_".  
Saria giggled, "I hope you don't have some sort of a crush on me, because I'm just a Kokiri".  
"Well, I'm a high elf," he said. "We can live to be 20,000 years old anyway".  
Link made a fake gag, "Gods!".  
"For someone who claims to be in his sixties as a high elf, you don't act to be more than ten years old!" Vio said. "Do you still think girls are icky?".  
"No," Link huffed.  
"He usually acts like this," Saria said. "It's okay, he's trying".  
Link tried to cover his embarrassment, "_I feel like Saria's real job is to absolutely humiliate me_".  
Vio laughed, "I don't know why you don't enjoys Saria's presence," Vio felt as if an urgent quest that lies on the lives of his dear friends was turned into a casual walk through the woods to pick Red and Blue up.  
"You're so much different around Saria," Link said. "You went from stoic and indifferent to Red".  
"Sometimes, all you need is a little humor to lighten the mood." Vio said. "It's not healthy to be indifferent and serious all the time; all in moderation, right?".  
"Yeah, sure," Link said. "Or maybe you're just trying to crush on Saria".  
Vio flushed a little, "...And?".  
"Watch out!" Saria yelled. She took her arrows out and shot a pair of Octorocks. They were wounded enough for Link and Vio to slice at the both of them and kill them. "Maybe it's better if we just keep an eye out rather than disregarding everything," Saria said as she, Link and Vio beheaded a group of possessed soldiers.  
"Yeah, Vio," Link humored them. "Maybe you should keep a closer eye out," to that, Link received a slap on his head from Saria.  
"Maybe you should turn your smart ass gauge down a notch," she said. "I tried all these years to raise you to be nicer and less ignorant, but I guess I've got to treat you like I've done all those years ago".  
"What do you mean?" Link asked. "You didn't raise me, I ran off and I'm living in a small village of Tree elves".  
"You're surely joking, aren't you?" Saria asked.  
"This is probably the Saria from the time sequence where you don't leave the forest," Vio said. "The Saria that Link has grown to know is much like you, but you tend to only visit every once in a while. Link is technically right, he wasn't raised by you. He was raised by another family".  
By then, they had exited the Lost Woods with surprisingly less jump attacks than expected. They faced the entrance to Kakariko Village, "_This looks much different than the Kakariko Village that Link showed me whenever we went out to the town and we walked passed the back entrance of the Village. It's much more rich looking and abundant than it was before_". Saria raised the question, "How long away from my time are we from Link's time?".  
"About 1000 years in the past," Link said. "Why do you ask?".  
"The village is much different than whenever you showed me through the back entrance of the Kakariko village through the back entrance," she said. "Of course, you may not remember showing me because I came from a different time".  
"I don't _remember_ even showing you through anywhere else besides the forest," Link said.  
"I was thinking as much," Saria said.  
"Let's get on with things, shall we?" Vio said as they would make their way further down south east to where the castle is. "Link can break the barrier that blocks out the top level of the castle. We'll use that way in order to get closer to Ganon. Got it?".  
"Yeah," Saria said.  
"Good," Vio said.  
"Who are we saving?" Saria asked.  
"Red and Blue," Vio said.  
"_Those are sure some of the most unusual names I've ever heard_".  
"They might be, to you," Vio said.  
"Did I say that aloud?" Saria asked, self consciously.  
"Vio can read people's minds," Link said. "It's pretty creepy".  
"You may think so," Vio said. "It's not weird to me".  
"That's because you've lived your entire life with that strange ability," Link said. Saria slapped Link again, "Why did you hit me?".  
"...Because you're so insensitive!" Saria said. "What if I told you that you're weird because you don't have a fairy!?".  
"You don't have a fairy!" Link said.  
"Not now," Saria said. "I wouldn't want her to get killed , so I told her to go back to my house until I return. It's not like the Kokiri would be unable to live if they don't have a fairy by their side, every second of their days!".  
"Your only defending him because you have a thing for him," Link said. Saria outright slapped Link for being so ignorant.  
"You know, sometimes it wouldn't kill you to act a little better than you do," Saria said. "I don't think it would kill you to show others a little more respect than you're showing them right now".  
Link didn't like this version of Saria, "Maybe you should learn to take a joke," he muttered.  
"My point, exactly," Saria stated. "I don't have the time to argue like this, let's just make this journey a quick one".  
"Let's," Vio said. Walking further south, they could see another team of possessed soldiers. "I wonder why these soldiers aren't more spread out?".  
"Either way, it's going to be easier to take them all out," Link said. He, Saria and Vio all ambushed the team of soldiers, killing all of them effortlessly.

* * *

They were about to approach the gates of the castle, "We should keep a relatively low profile, for now," Saria said.  
"Valani'ile may or may not be aware of the fact that we're here," Vio said.  
"Those were the plans," Link said.  
"Where do we go from here?" Saria whispered.  
"We just have to bypass the search lights," Vio said. "Since you have the bow, you can take out the four guards on the posts".  
Saria nodded, she aimed at the furthest group of guards and aimed four arrows at the four who guarded the post so that the guard who controls the search light wouldn't notice. Or at least that was the plan that Saria had. She shot them and they all fell down, their demonic spirits floated out of their chests.  
She proceeded to aim at the guards to the far right, it would be a little harder for her shots not to be noticed. All she could really do is take the four soldiers down and pray that no one notices. As she's been having fairly good luck so far, she aimed and shot three out of the four of them and quickly shot the last one before he could yell anything. To Saria's great relief, the top guard hadn't noticed.  
"You're doing good, just keep doing what you're doing," Vio whispered. "Take the close left group down next, the other side will be less likely to notice".  
"Good idea," Saria replied. She aimed nearly upward and took out two out of the four guards, not seeming to notice.  
"Raid!" One of them shouted. The lights panned all over the place. Being under a group of trees that lay just next to the entrance, it would be hard for the three of them to be easily noticed.  
A couple of soldiers rushed to check under the trees, they were taken out by Saria as she said, "Run!". She ran with them, she took out the rest of the soldiers manning the search lights. She, Link and Vio were hit by a couple of arrows. But they sliced through the remainder of the soldiers in time enough to raid the castle. "Dammit!" Saria cried, her shoulder was struck by an arrow.  
"I got it!" Link focused an Aura in his left hand, pulling the arrow out swiftly and healing the wound.  
"Thanks," Saria said. "Let's get a move on before the rest of those soldiers find us".  
Vio dusted himself off, "Not the warmest welcome I've ever received, but it'll do".  
"I'll say," Saria cosigned. "How are we going to get to the top level of this castle?" she asked.  
They all entered through the main gates that led into the castle, "It's much easier than one would first think: we go passed this place to the right...," Vio began. They entered a long hallway that extended both ways, "...Finally we head down this way," he pointed to the front way of the castle.  
They noticed two soldiers rushing for them, "I got it," Saria shot the two of them. "I don't have many arrows left, I'll have to restock pretty soon".  
They arrived at the upper level of the elongated hallway and started backwards to a balcony with a double doorway that had stayed open. The cold night breeze fluttered through the balcony. "Just passed this doorway, is the upper level," he said. they quickly navigated to the main part of the castle through the search posts and to a futuristic beam guard. "Link, you know what to do".  
"Yeah," Link struck the barrier and it dissipated, opening the entrance to the upper level of the castle.  
"Just know that it doesn't get any easier from here on out," Vio said.  
"I wouldn't expect it for a second," she said.  
Vio nodded and they all entered the double doorway to a dark room. Link used a fire incantation to light the hallway up to reveal guards with spiked whips. Saria ran straight for the two guards and beheaded them in an instant. They proceeded to the next room which contained a hoard of pitch forked wielding demonic soldiers surrounded by one larger demonic soldier that had an extendible spear.  
"I'll take out the red soldiers," Vio said.  
"I'll help," Link said.  
"I'm more than prepared to take this one out," Saria said, adjusting her blade to be extra sharp. She rushed passed the red armored soldiers and sliced the armor of the larger soldier in half.  
Meanwhile, Link and Vio were trying their best to take out the surrounding soldiers before they would have time to get to Saria. So far, 5 out of the 12 soldiers were taken out. They determined that Saria would have to help them with the rest. "We can't hold much longer!" Link shouted, barely dodging 3 of them and trying to make room to stab one of them without running the risk of injury.  
"Okay! Make room!" Saria yelled. Dodging one of the soldiers stabs, "Incoming!". Vio and Link dodged the stab while one of the 7 remaining soldiers weren't quick enough.  
Saria back flipped passed one of the soldiers that were cornering Link. She stabbed him through his thick metal helmet and right through his skull.  
There were only 5 remaining, Saria beheaded two of them while Vio stabbed one, making way for the last after Link had killed the last soldier that was cornering him.  
All that remained was the spear wielding soldier, Saria quickly pierced through the weak spot that she made from striking him and he fell to the ground as she delivered the final blow.  
The guard left a key which Saria took, "Another key to add to my collection," Saria said.  
"What do you mean?" Link asked.  
"I was running through the Skull Woods before I was led here by my conscience," Saria said.  
"Oh," he said.  
Saria unlocked the next door which was filled with a cluster of Wizzrobes backed by more demonic soldiers. Link quickly took out three of the Wizzrobes with his fire incantation and Saria took out another three with a darkness incantation.  
"I never knew that you could spell cast," Link said. "But that can wait 'till later".  
Saria nodded as she sliced through another three of the Wizzrobes, completely doing away with them. "You know, there comes a point where all of this just stops being hard and starts becoming a bit of an annoyance".  
"Yeah," Link said, nearly out of breath. "Now you know what I do for fun".  
"Not very fun to me," Saria said, driving her rapier through two of the demonic soldiers.  
"Surely this part isn't fun," Link said, slicing through the last bits of Wizzrobes. "Especially because these are usually the places that I'm forced to get sleep. Not the safest nor most comfortable feeling if I do say so, myself".  
"I'd guess not," Saria said, finishing off the last bits of Wizzrobes and soldiers.  
Vio came running back with another set of keys, "This goes to the main chamber where Ganon is," he said. He handed the set of keys to Link, "Here, take this".  
He disconnected the second key and opened the door to the main hall of the upper level of the castle. "Let's be prepared for the worst," he said.  
They all ran into the next room, prepared for something that wouldn't be a three minute job. But everything was empty. They were all equally confused at how the penultimate room would be devoid of anything.  
"_This could be a trap_".  
"You're telling me," Vio replied.  
"There's only one thing to do," Saria said. "What I've been doing for the passed day and a half now". She ran to the middle of the room and slashed the curtains. "It's A okay!" Saria gave a thumbs up.  
Link and Vio determined that it was safe and they dashed over to the other side of the room. However, Link had an idea, "Saria, you said that you're running low on arrows, right?".  
Saria nodded.  
"The chest third to the right and downward are chock full of arrows," Link said.  
"Thanks," Saria walked over to the chest and found that there were a bunch of arrows in the one chest. "This'll be useful, especially since they're in bundles," Saria took 5 bundles of arrows, she now had well over 500 slender arrows. Saria took the liberty to test out one of the arrows, "These arrows have much more precision than the arrows that I've been using".  
"That's all good and nice," Link started. "But we've still got some business to attend to".  
"Yeah," Saria said. She stuck the bundles in her sling and said, "I'm ready".  
They all entered through the gates to Ganon's room. He was playing fugues and sonatas in minor keys on the organ, he had just gotten playing the adagio section of one of the many fugues that he had just gotten done playing. "It was quite noble of you to defend your brethren at the risk of your own life," he turned around, only to find that not just Link, but Vio and Saria were ready to take Ganon down. "I see that there will be no introduction then, let's just jump right into things, shall we?".  
Ganon unsheathed his sword and began striking the three of them with giant spheres of energy.  
Link had shot the sphere of energy back at Ganon, while Ganon was distracted by Link. Vio rushed for him and managed a cheap shot at Ganon.  
"I see we've got some unfair advantages, yes?" Ganon asked them. He multiplied into three Ganons, "You didn't think that you would be able to simply gang up on me like that?". As the original Ganon finished his sentence, Saria quickly rushed for Ganon and pierced right through his armor. Saria was worlds quicker than Ganon was, she was already back in the place she began as Ganon was beginning to charge energy in his sword again.  
"We've got quite a skilled young lady with us, don't we?" Ganon said.  
"Enough small talk," Vio said. "I'll slit your throat if you can't maintain control of that mouth of yours".  
Ganon laughed, "...And what makes you think that you've got the authority to slit my throat?".  
"Who ever said that I need consent?" Vio jumped onto Ganon's shoulders and drove his blade into his skull.  
Ganon proceeded to charge as much energy into his blade as he could muster and flung his blade at Link.  
Barely missing the blade, Link dodged his clumsy strike and countered it by beheading Ganon cleanly. To no avail, the three Ganons collided into a larger form of himself.  
"You sure like to be original, don't you?" Link said, sarcastically. Ganon, now with a spear conjured a gale of pure energy that struck as quickly as lightning. Only Saria was able to dodge the shards of lightning. Unlike Saria, Link and Vio were somewhat injured. Judging by the fact that Ganon didn't kill them with the one strike, Link found that Ganon's power is still very limited. "_Vio! Ganon's power may not be completely present! That means that this Ganon may not be the real deal!_".  
"_He's our ticket to the dark world,_" Vio replied. "_Just keep going at him until it happens_".  
"_Got it!_". Link called for Saria, "Quick! Strike Ganon!".  
"Are you trying to kill me!?" Saria yelled. She dodged Ganon's clumsy flail and struck Ganon, once again. "_Maybe Ganon's power is limited in this realm, that explains why I was more vulnerable in the Forest Temple_".  
"_That's been established! All you need to do is keep going at Ganon until he's weak enough to teleport us to the dark world_" Vio replied.  
Saria dodged another one of Ganon's strikes, "_If that's what you wanted, then I know the incantations to teleport all of you there_".  
"_The only difference is, your version of the dark world may be different. The idea is that we can recover Red and Blue whenever we get that far. I'll explain more later. For now, just do as I say_".  
"_Got it,_" Saria drove her rapier down Ganon's throat. Ganon shoved Saria to the ground with bone crushing force.  
"Well played!" Ganon said, laughing maniacally. "You said that you didn't want anymore dialogue, so let's just see how you do in _my_ element!".  
"_Now's our chance!_" Vio called for them. They all struck Ganon at once.  
"Dammit!" Ganon cursed. He let out screams and screeches of insanity as he fell to the ground in a dramatic frame of silence.  
Two figures began to appear in the ray of light, Saria couldn't exactly see any details of what they looked like. But she felt their presence, one seemed to be more serious than the other. While the other had very feminine qualities. Saria thought that the second figure was female until the ray of light vanished.  
"Gods!" Link exclaimed. Link ran for Red and Blue and hugged them both. "I thought that we would never see you again!".  
"What do you mean?" Blue asked. "We were eating salmon by the pedestal by the sunset one minute and now we're here!".  
"Hey, Link!" Red waved, crammed in between Link's arms and Blue's shoulders.  
Link let go of the both of them, "You have no idea of how much a relief it is to see the two of you".  
"I don't know what you mean," Red's bubbly disposition amused Saria.  
Saria approached Red, "Hey! My name is Saria and I'm the guardian of the Forest Temple".  
"If you're the guardian of _that_ place, then you might want to hire some house keeping!" Red joked.  
"Oh, my! I'm surprised that Link has never introduced you and the others!" Saria said. "You're so much more pleasant than Link, why is he so grumpy all the time?".  
"I dunno," Red shrugged. "He might be cranky, he gets that way whenever he hasn't gotten any sleep for too long".  
Saria and Red laughed together. "You remind me more of the Link that I grew up with".  
"Yeah," he said. "I can't imagine him acting nearly as cheery and bubbly as me!".  
"Speaking of which, it'll be hard getting used to a Link that doesn't have a smart ass comment to make," Saria said.  
"He does have quite a lot of those!" Red said.  
"Alright," Vio said. "Now that we're together, we can return the favor," he directed himself to Saria.  
"Thank you," Saria said. "With four Links to help me, I don't think much could go wrong!".  
"You said that you knew incantations that teleport people to the dark world?" Vio brought it up.  
"I know the incantations too!" Red chimed.  
"We can chant them together, it's much stronger whenever you have more people," Saria said. "Everyone needs to hold hands".  
"Yeah, I'm familiar with it," Link said. He griped onto Saria's hand and then Vio's hand as they linked hands to form a circle. In a flash of light, they had successfully been transported to the dark world.

After a few seconds of observation, the four had realized that this would be their destination after taking care of the Desert Palace and Death Mountain.  
"This looks like the place that we were headed to anyway," Vio said.  
"Yeah," Link agreed.  
"That's convenient," Red chimed.  
"I've gotten as far as this first key," Saria said. "With you guys by my side, I don't think that the rest of the temple will be much of a problem".  
"You've also got to take into consideration that I like to prepare for things," Vio said. "I know exactly where that key goes. The rest of you, split up. The other bits of the temple for the most part, don't require any keys from the temple chunk that we're going to," Vio said.  
"Here," Saria entrusted Vio with the key. "I've got no clue where to go, I'll just assist you wherever you need help".  
Vio nodded, the rest of them parted ways and Vio couldn't help but pick up very obvious signs of guilt. "I know that you feel guilty for not being able to complete the temple by yourself. But if you look at it another way, we needed you just as much as you needed us if not more".  
"I suppose that makes me feel better," Saria said. "But all the other sages could've probably taken less than a day to secure their temple; and in my one time to shine, I prove that I can't do it on my own".  
"If I could've completed my mission on my own, then only Link would've been needed for the job," he said. "You've also got to consider that not all jobs can be done with just one person".  
"Yeah," Saria agreed. She began to feel a little better, "Come to think of it, I believe that it was meant to happen this way. I somehow knew that I would need assistance with fighting considering how peaceful and nonviolent the better part of Kokiri forest is".  
"We should get a move on quickly," Vio said. "I know that Valani'ile has the power to turn the switch on something any time he pleases and we need to secure the forest temple's crystal so that he doesn't have the power to destroy the world".  
"_I suppose Link was right, reading my mind is sort of creepy,_" Saria said.  
"Nothing to hide, nothing to fear," Vio said, half jokingly.  
Saria had just taken notice that she had no idea where she was, "Where are we? It doesn't even look like we're in the Skull Woods, anymore".  
"We're in the outer parts of the skull woods," Vio replied. "Many people say that beyond this giant hill is nothing but a wasteland. But it's actually an extension of the Hylian land".  
"I've read many stories about how outside of the land of Hyrule lies nothing but mysteries. I've also read about how Hylian royalty often lied to the townsfolk to keep them from venturing to Termina because they are on mutual speaking terms".  
"Not exactly," Vio said. "The real reason is because Termina has always thought that Hylians are fools. Seeing all of the things that I've seen from the villages, I can't really say that I blame them". They reached the second part of the skull temple.  
"Is this the only place that we're going to go?" Saria asked.  
"Nope," Vio replied. "We and the others have a lot more to go before we gather all that's needed".  
"Like what?" Saria asked.  
"Crystal shards," Vio said leaping up to the second level of the giant structure. Saria leaped up shortly after Vio did, "There are eight of them that we need to get, the only way that Valani'ile could weaken the crystals quickly was if he broke them down into enough shards. He knew that we would all go looking for them".

Link had decided to go alone while Red and Blue would go to the other sides of the temple.  
"Link, listen very closely," Blue began. "I want you to cover the three pieces of the temple that lie westward, I've explained everything before. But I won't get angry if you don't remember, it was a long time ago and I'll understand if you can't remember".  
"It's fine," Link replied. "It seems to me that Saria doesn't have a lot of time, so let's hurry then. I'll see you tomorrow".  
"Okay," Blue said.  
"Bye!" Red waved.  
Link lightheartedly smiled and waved, he then turned around to the west to cover his three temple pieces. "_Where to start?_" Link wondered. He couldn't remember wherever the beginning of the temple was. "I guess I'll just start for the middle temple," Link said as he nuzzled his way through various bush mazes, slicing his way through the various vermin and demons that lurked through the shadows.  
Not long after, he arrived at the middle temple. He realized that most of the temple pieces had second floor entrances but no first floor entrances "_Gods, I really hope I don't have to backtrack too much. I'm getting worn out and tired just thinking about it"_. Link hopped to the second floor of the skeleton of the temple.  
The temple itself was built inside of the side of a 50 meter tall hill and proved itself to be one of the bigger bits of the temple. At that, Link was rather disappointed at the fact that he may have to back track in order to recover all of the shards of the forest. "..._Just when I was hoping that I wouldn't have to back track_". Link somehow knew that Vio could hear his relentless complaining, and that he would return to Vio telling him that "I can hear you complaining about your _trials_. It's quite irking".  
"_Well maybe you should drop that weird ability and maybe you won't have to deal with something that normally isn't supposed to be heard_". Link found himself in front of a locked door in the middle of two long hallways. As he didn't have a key, he decided to enter through the left side of the hallway, "_I better not have to backtrack_". Not long after Link said that, he discovered that the path forked further into seven passage ways, "_I don't know where the hell I'm supposed to go,_" Link huffed.

Meanwhile, Red and Blue headed south and to the temple to the left of the main temple. Blue had a strange feeling that Link wouldn't know where to go. "Do you remember telling Link what to do?".  
"I don't know," Red replied. "But I do remember you explaining to Link where to go and what to do. I can even quote what you said: 'First, don't start at the main temple! You'll end up heading down the forks in the path to the left or right forever and ever. Go to the temple to the right of the main temple and in the second room, you'll find a key'...," Blue interrupted.  
"Yeah, I know what I said. But would Link remember all of that whenever he was under the mindset that he wouldn't have to deal with that temple until much later?" Blue asked.  
Red tried not to chuckle and said, "He's probably heading down the forks thinking that he'll actually get somewhere".  
Blue smirked, "Well, serves his ass right for not listening. We'll come back for him later". Red nodded and let out all of the laughter that he did a bad job of hiding in the first place. "I know it sounds harsh, but I definitely remember telling him to remember my words well. If he didn't remember well, he could've asked me what to do and I would've told him what to do".  
Red nodded again, "I distinctly remember you saying that he must remember well; and you said that 'you may need this information at any time' and Link nodded the way that he usually does whenever he isn't really listening". Blue continued smirking but inside, was rather annoyed that Link would act like that.  
"No matter, he's going to get what's coming to him. His section of the temple is probably the hardest to screw up. If he does screw up, he won't go too far".

As Blue had said, Link seemed to not be moving from the frame of reference that was the light that peaked through the entrance of the door. "Maybe if I run, I'll go faster".

As Red and Blue neared the temple, Red raised the question, "Why would they ever design a temple to do that".  
"I suppose that Valani'ile knew that Link would do that, he's way too thick headed to follow any advice I give him, after all".  
"Yeah, that's true," he said. "I remember the time that you told Link to be careful not to step on the wrong floor tile in Vaati's temple...".  
Red cringed with the thought of how much more trouble they were brought into.

"_I wonder how far away the entrance of the temple is from here,_" Link looked back only to see that he was wasting time trying to get somewhere. "_Damn. For once, I wish I would've listened to Blue_". His eyes lit up with an idea, "Hey, wait! Maybe Blue isn't too far off. If I run as fast as I can, maybe I'll be able to catch them before nightfall".  
However, Link knew that it would be dark soon. He could only hope that he would reach Red and Blue before it was too dark to see. "_Wait a minute... why would I have too worry about it being dark if I have a lantern?_" he felt through his tunic in the twilight and he couldn't find it. "_Dammit... I might have dropped it while I was off in idle thought_". Trailing further off into thought, he now figured that Vio would be able to hear all of his thoughts crystal clear. "_Wait, I don't need that Blue to tell me! He'll be pissed that I didn't listen to him and Vio can give me directions at any time!_".  
"_Sometimes, I worry about your ability to think for yourself,_" replied a whisper that echoed far into Link's mind. "_Other times, I think that you truly are a child_".  
"_Look, all I need to know is what to do, and that's it,_" Link said.  
"_Since we're under rather extenuating circumstances, I'll do it this time, but don't continuously start bugging me about it or I'll leave you to try and do it on your own until tomorrow... I knew I should've brought you with me._" Vio replied.  
"Well... I'm listening," Link said, impatiently.

Meanwhile, Vio was concentrating on reading Link's mind, "_So... your original mindset was that you were going to go through one of the sideways of the locked door; I don't remember quite right, but I do remember Blue stressing that you shouldn't enter through either side and to head South of the temple_".  
Link remembered how ridiculous he thought it was that Blue was stressing that, "_I remember how I thought it was stupid that he was stressing to go to the right of the main temple. Since the temple is facing the east and Blue is referring to the front of the temple, I need to head north_".  
"_Well... I guess you can remember that much. I was going to say that if Blue said that, he was wrong. The rest is pretty difficult to screw up; judging that you've done this before, you shouldn't have any problems_".  
"_Thanks,_" Link said.  
"_Now stop wasting time, because nightfall isn't but 20 minutes away,_" Vio ordered.  
"_What do you think I'm doing? I'm not just standing here! I'm running as fast as I can!_" Link shouted aloud, his echoes could be heard from where Red and Blue were.  
Link ran right into Red and Blue, "Why the hell are you here? You're going the wrong way!".  
"No, I'm not," Blue replied. "You are in fact, going in the wrong direction. No point in going back, it'll be well into tomorrow before you get close to the other side. I sure hope you're satisfied".  
"I'm not," Link replied.  
"You know, some times I feel like I'm trying to instruct a little child on how to do something that is so self explanatory".  
"Will you stop that?" Link asked Blue, annoyed unrightfully so.  
"Maybe you can think about how you would've been able to make this operation go over more smoothly," Blue replied.  
"It's not my fault that _you_ didn't explain...," Link said.  
Blue had just about enough of Link's complaining, he pushed him back and he then tripped and fell, "I asked you if you needed to have the plan explained again and you said that you didn't need it and that we were in a rush! And it's _my_ fault that you're too God damned self righteous to admit that you're not perfect? Get out of my sight, you little bastard! Go!".  
"Fine! I don't need your damn help anyway!" Link said.  
"...Then go to hell," Blue replied. "I sure won't miss you, I don't think anyone will miss that whiny voice of yours".  
Link ran away as far as he could from Blue, "_I don't need his help! But I do need yours_".  
"_And you think I'll help you?_" Vio replied. "_You just showed Blue more disrespect than the time you first met him, You're on your own_".  
"_You're with Blue?_" Link asked, very surprised at him.  
"_Yes,_" Vio said. "_I was under the mindset that you forgot where to go because you were thinking of a different part of the temple or whatever reason you should have for not knowing what to do_".  
"_But what about Saria?_" Link asked.  
"_Saria isn't a part of this,_" Vio concluded. "_It's in your hands, whether you want Saria to fail at her mission or whether you want to do a little maturing and use what you have_".  
"_I can't believe you're siding with him,_" Link said.  
"_You may as well believe it,_" Vio said. "_I'm quite busy with my piece of the temple, unlike you. I'll be back by sunrise and I will expect you to finish up your piece before too long. If you're not back by noon, we'll have a problem,_" he said.  
"_As if you can do anything,_" Link replied.  
"_You really are immature, aren't you? I'm trying to say that the time will have run out if you choose to be a little pouter about your own mistakes that you've brought upon yourself instead of taking it like a true man_".  
"_What do you know about being a man!?_" Link started.  
"_Well to start, I've lived for 65 years and I'm quite a gentleman compared to you,_" Vio said. "_In Hylian years, I'm 20 years close to death. Let's just face the facts, you're no older than 6 years old. You've had plenty of time to realize that acting like an adult will result in being treated as an adult, not a boy_".  
At heart, Link knew that it was true just as much as Vio did. "T___ouché,_" Link concluded with hesitance.  
"_That's already a step in the right direction,_" Vio said. "_Just keep making steps in the right direction and you'll be fine. Start with the temple and continue with an apology to Blue_".  
"_I'll admit that I was harsh to Blue, but he-,_" Link was cut off.  
"_Now you're stepping in the wrong direction,_" Vio said. "_Trust me, Blue isn't the only person you need to apologize to_".  
"_Who else?_" Link asked, in whiny voice.  
"_Me,_" he said. "..._Saria and Red. Don't even pretend that you weren't the force that led to Red's death_".  
"_I didn't want Red to get hurt or mourn over me!_" Link yelled.  
"_No, that death that Red suffered was infinitely worse than any pain that Valani'ile could've inflicted!_" Vio shouted.  
"_Quit trying to make me feel bad! I know that it was wrong of me to cause the death of Red! At the time, I thought that he would be better off not mourning over me!_".  
"_You thought wrong!_" Vio replied. "_Sometimes I wish that you were the one that died for us! You've been nothing but trouble from the very start! Honestly, I don't know what Red sees in you!_".  
"_Well, I - wait, what?_" Link asked.  
"_You know what I said! Red has said nothing but how noble you are and how he adores you!_" Vio said. "_I can't understand how someone could adore anyone as childish and ignorant as you!_".

As Saria stood following at Vio's side, he noticed his face getting angrier and angrier. He looked less pleasant and kind and more stern and unkind towards something or someone.  
Saria was also getting quite angry, "If there's something that you need to say, then go along and say it!" she shouted.  
"Fine, I'll say it. If that little brat were to die, I wouldn't miss him the least bit," he replied, in a calm manner.  
"What brat? You mean Link?" Saria asked, no longer angry. She now had a curious look on her face.  
"Yes Link. That little brat has been nothing but an annoyance, I can't see how you can put up with him everyday. He always thinks that he's right whenever he's _clearly_ wrong. He then pouts and complains whenever the proof that he's wrong is put right in front of him. I feel like I'm dealing with a child or something".  
Saria laughed a little, "He _is_ a child," she replied.  
"I remember telling Link that if he tries to pull any of that pouting, we'll all leave him. Since then, he's been nothing but another problem that we have to deal with".  
"That surely isn't the Link that I have to live with," Saria said. "He's actually quite the opposite, he doesn't throw hissy fits nor thinks and acts like a child".  
"He would sure come quite in handy," Vio replied. "That little brat might be the reason that we fail the mission".  
"That's sure a bummer," Saria said. "I wish I could talk sense into him. The way I raised Link was with patience and compassion, never with sternness nor anger nor aggression".  
"It's quite funny that you should say that I'm _raising_ Link. I told Link that we wouldn't change his diapers and that he would have to carve his own path if he ever had any hopes of surviving".  
"You come off as a rather aggressive individual and not one to be kind with if you don't treat them with kindness first," Saria said. "The moment the Deku Tree entrusted me with Link, I've nothing but adored him and cared for him. I was close by him until he was old enough to resemble a Kokiri boy, he still loves me as a son and I still love him as a mother".  
"Aren't you a bit young to be caring for a baby?" Vio asked. "I'm 65 and I still don't think that I'm ready to raise a young one".  
"I'm twice as old as you are: 130 years old," Saria said. "I have lots of experience raising young forest elves because many of them don't have _desirable traits _as they call them. The forest elves that do exhibit desirable traits: blue or green eyes and golden and light brown hair are raised in the upper parts of Jinmori, a royal haven of forest elves".  
"That's so much more different than my village," Vio said. "Well, it's more of a town due to it's size. But they never do that to elves".  
"I was actually surprised that the Deku Tree handed Link over to me. He had light cerulean eyes and light golden hair. More so, the children that I raised were all so much older than this child. It wasn't until Link was crawling that the Deku Tree told me the real story of what happened".  
"What happened?" Vio asked, his voice less tense and angry sounding.  
"His father had been burnt alive in a raid and his mother was deeply wounded. She had to take the secret root to the forest to deliver Link over to the Deku Tree where she knew no one would kill him. Her neighbor's two children: one 6 year old girl and 2 year old boy had already been ruthlessly beheaded along with their mother and father. Upon arriving, Link saw his own mother die and he was waling in sadness for his mother," Saria said. "I had no idea why Link was so upset until I heard the news. I could do nothing but cry for hours, in my room. I remember comforting Link and saying that everything was fine unwary of the fact that he would never know his parents". Saria resisted the urge to cry, "_I'm not going to cry, I'll stay strong,_" she told herself.  
"It's okay, we'll wait," Vio said.  
She waited until Saria had the strength to say more, "I remember it... running back to my house. Running over Mido and slamming my door whenever I got to my house. I remember letting out all of my emotions, I knew that I had to tell Link what really happened".  
"You mean to say that Link doesn't have any tree elven ancestors?" Vio asked.  
"No," Saria replied.  
"Link's casting ability is phenomenal," Vio said. "I've never seen a Hylian mimic a tree elf so well".  
"That's the story of the Link that _I_ know. For all I know, the same thing could've happened to Link in this world," Saria said.  
"Maybe," Vio said. "It's not very likely, there are only so many relative traits other Link's can have in alternate universes".

* * *

**Dawn of the Final Day**

After about four hours of rest, Vio couldn't sleep anymore. He had to awaken, he knew that time was running shorter and shorter. Along with that, Vio couldn't be sure if recovering all of the shards of the forest crystal would do the job. With as much research as he's done, there's absolutely no way to be sure that this would be the solution. "_Just stop being ridiculous, I've got to have faith in my solution. I'll never be able to complete this if I don't take it seriously. I just need to stop telling myself all of these silly things,_" Vio tried to convince himself. "_If I just have faith, then I'm sure that we'll be able to do it. I formulated the solution, and I'm almost never wrong with my research. I've stayed on my toes and kept watchful of every possible thing that could've gone wrong. At this point, there's no way I'll fail, Almost all of my plans have worked perfectly, the few that haven't were just minor oversights_".  
Within minutes, Saria awoke and she didn't wait for a second, "Let's go," she said.  
"Really?" Vio asked. "I had plans to let you rest for two more hours, initially because I felt a little tired, myself".  
"Then why aren't you resting?" Saria asked.  
"I've just been thinking a lot about Link," Vio lied. Saria couldn't tell that he was lying, he never really had much emotion in his voice nor his face.  
"I know that it was a sad story," Saria said. "...But not all stories have happy endings. I guess that was one of them. Besides, you could ask the Link that I know and he'll say that he's been able to live with it".  
"Well, if you're ready," Vio said. He took Saria's hand and helped her up.

"Don't you think that you were just a little harsh with him?" Red asked. "I think you hurt his feelings".  
"I don't think I was harsh with Link, he needs to learn how he can hurt people with words," Blue said. "He doesn't seem to realize the fact that he could say the wrong thing to the wrong person".  
"But did he know better?" Red asked.  
"It doesn't matter if he knew better or not," Blue said.  
Red's mildly concerned face turned into one of greater concern, "Did he hurt your feelings whenever he told you off like that?".  
Blue exhaled, "I'm going to say it, how it is; do you promise just to keep this a secret between you and Vio?".  
Red nodded.  
"It really hurts my feelings that Link never listens to me... there, I said it," Blue said.  
"Oh," Red replied. "_I didn't know that Blue's feelings could be hurt like that_".  
"_Well, they can,_" Vio replied. "_I told Link that if he wanted to be treated as an adult, he would have to apologize to all of us for his distasteful behavior and lack of poise_".  
"It's true," Blue said. "If you can get Link to apologize sincerely to me, then I'll promise to not act distasteful around Link even if I think it's called for".  
"_Oh, he's going to apologize,_" Vio said. "_He knows that he doesn't like being treated like a baby, and I know it too. He'll apologize because I know that Link wants your respect and acceptance more than you might think_".  
Blue raised an eyebrow, "What?".  
"_It may be hard to believe, but Link was trying to win you over from the start by acting like you,_" Vio said. "_But you know, all I can do is read his thoughts and identify his motives. You shouldn't take my word for it_".  
"_Okay, I'm convinced,_" Red replied. "_You're not the type to lie, so I'll trust you_".  
"_Yeah, sure,_" Blue said. "I'll try to be more patient with him. This new perspective is convincing me that I should have a talk with Link".  
Red smiled, "I'm really glad".  
Blue held Red back, "Stay here for a minute, this floor can only hold one person". Blue saw the crystal shard being held at an alter, "Once I grab the crystal, don't worry about me. Run as fast as you can and don't stop until you're completely out of the temple".  
Red nodded and Blue made a large leap over to the alter and Red made a run for it. He quickly stuffed the crystal into a pocket and sealed it tightly. He leaped back out of the room as the temple began to fall apart. Trying his best to dodge the giant chunks of rubble, Blue made sure the crystal was kept safe in his pocket, "_I really can't make mistakes here_".  
"_You're damned right about that,_" Vio replied. "_In fact, take a left through the far way, Red. Jump off of the back entrance, and we'll all meet at the alter of the four sword whenever all of the shards are recovered. You take Link's piece of the dungeon and Saria and I will wait_".  
"Got it," Blue replied, his voice being a little inconsistent from having to take deep breaths from the running.

"What are Red and Blue doing?" Saria asked.  
"They've got the crystal shard," Vio replied. "We're pretty close to getting our shard and Link's shard was probably the easiest of them all. It's quite literally a key quest. Go to one temple to retrieve the key to the other temple that holds the key to the alter holding the crystal shard".  
"Hmm," Saria said. "What's the catch?.  
"The temple was designed for the hero to over think the situation due to the interior of the temple. It was effectively designed to waste the hero's time and in some cases, trap them".  
"Come to think of it, that's actually quite intelligent design. Especially for me, a person who enjoys exploration", Saria said.  
"I hate to interrupt, but this room is the alter of the crystal", Vio said. "Whenever I grab the crystal, this entire temple is going to crash down on itself. I need you to start making a run for it," he said. Reading Saria's mind, Vio knew that Saria would try to go looking for Link, "Don't try to go looking for Link, just head straight for the alter".  
"Got it," Saria said. "_I'll just have to trust Vio_".  
"That's right," Vio replied. "Trusting me is going to be your way out".  
Saria nodded and began making her way out. Vio opened the door and quickly made a leap for the crystal shard and ran as fast as his child like legs would carry him.  
"_I really wish my legs were a little longer,_" Vio thought to himself. "_Being small isn't exactly beneficial. Whatever, you can't have everything_".

Within minutes, Saria made it to the alter, where she would get a little bit of sleep in the mean time. "_I can't remember the last time I've had a real nap that wasn't for more than 6 hours_".  
"_For the record, I knew that you needed more sleep than you were getting. But I must applaud how seriously you're taking the mission,_" Vio said. "_For a sage, you seem more like a warrior whom is well trained. A quality that I would've never seen_".  
"Practice makes perfect," Saria replied. "I've always got to prepare myself for something. Or else my life would be as bland and uninteresting as everybody thinks it is".  
Vio laughed, "_I would've thought as much. Your strategy and thinking isn't one of a sage who spends her spare time playing with three ghosts and picking flowers_".  
Saria laughed along with Vio, "_Well, my inspiration for training and becoming strong was actually the girls. They gave me something that I felt the duty to protect. Those damned Kokiri children can rot in hell, they don't respect anyone_".  
"_You're starting to sound like Blue,_" Vio replied, half jokingly.  
"_Doesn't everyone have a little bit of Blue inside of them?_" Saria joked.  
"_In this world? I find it hard to disagree,_" Vio replied. "Hold on, I'll be there in a couple of minutes".  
"_That was fast,_" Saria said. "_It took a little longer for me to get there_".  
"_I have the weapon of short distance teleportation,_" Vio said. "_I was saving for when I really needed it. I had enough faith in you to be able to quickly escape the temple, but I'm not really as fast as I'd like to be_".  
"_It's because your little legs won't carry you as fast as mine,_" Saria said, laughing.  
"_I'll admit the truth in that statement,_" Vio said. "_It's not easy trying to save the world in this body. Even if I've got years of experience under my belt and should've adapted, I'm just living with the fact that I've got the fitness and capabilities of a 7 year old child_".  
Meanwhile, Red and Blue were at the last part of the temple, "Just wait out here," Red said. "This shouldn't be hard at all".  
"Okay," Blue said, shrugging. Red leaped up to the entrance of the final part of the temple and quickly grabbed the shard like the rest. He leaped straight out of the temple, rolling upon impact to the ground.  
"Well, we're finally done," Blue said, relieved. "Maybe we can finally get back to finishing some unfinished business with Valani'ile".  
Red brushed himself off and popped his shoulder, "We could assist Saria while she's fighting with Valani'ile".  
"...But Vio told me that Saria wasn't fighting Valani'ile. And that she wanted to take this fight alone".  
"Why not?" Red asked.  
Blue couldn't stand looking at Red's eyes, he knew that Red was concerned for Saria's safety. "Red, you've got to understand that it's pride that's making Saria feel as if she should be alone. She's told Vio and he told me of how precious her temple is to her, she said that she has failed to keep loyal to a promise that she made to her three best friends. She said that she always told them that there's nothing that she wouldn't be able to handle herself. She knew that she wouldn't be able to handle what we've got to deal with all the time".  
"Really?" Red asked him. "But why is she so proud of a promise that she couldn't keep?".  
"I guess she wants to make up for it by facing the problem alone," he said. "...And if she dies, well... she said that it wouldn't matter because she doesn't want to live in a world where she can't even have the forest temple".  
"What's Saria even talking about?" Red asked.  
"It sounds like Saria has lost a lot of things in her life. Who knows? She could've lost friends, hope, or even someone she loved dearly," Blue replied. "I don't really know, but that's exactly what it sounds like to me". He put his hand on Red's shoulder, 'I wouldn't really worry about it if I were you. So don't make too much of it, okay?".  
"Yeah," Red said. "But I still don't understand".  
"I don't either," Blue said. "The only thing that I fully understand about the situation is that it's a personal decision".  
"I just don't want Saria to face whatever _thing_ by herself," Red said.  
"Red, do you remember when Saria effortlessly annihilated Ganon's tower?" Blue asked.  
Red nodded, "Yes".  
"She must've killed at least one thousand demon possessed soldiers," Blue said. "Not only that, but Saria made it as far as she did without our help".  
"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said. "I might just care a little too much".  
"Well, I never said that it isn't an honorable trait," he said. "You're probably the most selfless person I know".  
Within minutes, they arrived at the alter. To which Saria was sleeping, "I think she did good for her first quest," Blue said.

Meanwhile, Link was making his return to the altar, "_I've got to face this_". As Link approached earshot of Blue, he had an expectant expression on his face. But he knew that Vio had told him in advance, so it wasn't a surprise that Link would apologize.  
"Before you say anything, I'm going to let you know that Vio told me in advance that you were going to apologize," he said.  
"I kinda figured," Link said. "Well... um... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for acting the way I did".  
"I would say that it's okay, but then I wouldn't have wanted your apology," Blue replied. "However, I do think that I can be a little harsh with you; so I do apologize. I promise that I'll be more patient".  
"This little exchange of apology is touching, but it's time to say our final farewells to Saria".  
Red crouched down to Saria's level, her back lent on the pedestal, "Goodbye!".  
Saria took a deep breath and opened her eyes, "Wait a minute... why are you saying goodbye to me?".  
"You have to face your final trial!" he said, cheerfully.  
"My final trial...," Saria thought for minute. She snapped back into reality, "Yes, my final trial," she said. "Before I step through this realm, I just want to thank you for everything that you've done. I wish I could spend more time with all of you, but unfortunately...".  
"We all understand," Vio said. "We're also quite busy, and we must be getting back to our world. It is indeed, unfortunate".  
"Goodbye," Link waved to Saria.  
"Until next time, farewell," Blue cosigned.  
"Red, Link, would you mind?" Saria asked.  
"Of course not!" Red replied.  
"Not at all," Link replied.  
They held hands and collaboratively, they created a portal back to Saria's world.  
"Thank you," Saria said. She walked through the portal, with both of her eyes closed. She had mentally prepared herself for the worst.  
"I suppose we should get going now," Vio said.  
"Yeah, let's get out of here," Blue agreed.  
"Where are we going to next?" Link asked.  
"We're going back to the world we were at initially and go to death mountain," Vio said. "Whenever we get passed the coves, we'll go over to the summit and destroy the dark crystal".  
"Can't we just teleport there?" Red asked. "My legs are tired".  
"Yeah, as long as you've got enough energy," Link said. "It's important not to ware yourself out".  
"I know," Red said. They held hands again and another portal opened. With that, the four of them stepped through the portal, returning to the world from where they came.

* * *

Saria opened her eyes, she took a deep breath, "It's time to face this thing," she said. Her vision took a while to clear up, but she found herself at the entrance of the Forest Temple. Saria made her way down the elevator like gazebo at the center of the temple and in the center room.

Meanwhile, the four: Link, Red, Blue, and Vio were at the Temple of the Four Sword. As the four of them opened their eyes, they all couldn't help but feel a disturbance in their conscience.  
"Do you think Saria will be okay?" Red asked, concernedly.  
"She's made it this far, I think she'll be fine," Blue answered. "...But I also can't help but feel the slightest bit nervous". Blue thought for a minute, "_Wait, didn't Saria need our help to get this far?_". He tried to excuse his patterns of thought as paranoia, "_She'll be fine, I know it_".  
"None of you need to worry about Saria," Vio said. "I'm sure that she's more than capable of dealing with her own problems". Vio also thought for a minute, "_That's not quite right, didn't she need our help to get as far as she did?_".  
"Saria seems capable enough," Link said. "She probably only needed our help because she knew that she wouldn't be able to recover the Forest Temple before time runs out".  
"Maybe," Blue said. "I can't really see Saria having trouble with the temples, you're probably right".

Saria quickly dodged the demonic creature's flail. A strange essence radiated off of it. Saria could tell that the source of all the strange feelings she felt in the Temple came from this monster. The essence seemed to equally distribute itself throughout the room, but spread off in broken bits once it passed through the walls. She charged towards the demon with her blade and managed a cheap stab in its back.  
The demon retaliated and knocked Saria back and she hit the wall, her back was now throbbing with pain. But she knew that if she didn't move away from the demon's path, it would be the end of her.  
She flailed herself away from the demon, "_Dammit!_". She picked herself up and shot over to the right, dodging the vicious, flailing attacks from the demon. It's claws made five deep gashes into the side of the temple walls.  
Saria tried her best to ignore it, and rushed towards the demon again, and stabbed it straight in it's left eye. the blade got caught in the demon's hound like skull and she struggled to remove her blade. In just a few minutes, the blade was almost completely absorbed in the demon's skull.  
As she thought that her rapier wasn't recoverable, she began to force the blade out of it's eye socket. She focused just a dash of magic to corrode the sticky matter that gripped at her blade. She drew the blade out of the demon's eye socket. The pierce recovered in seconds, and the demon charged at Saria, but she was already too weary to dodge. Saria was smashed to the floor. This time, she was fighting for consciousness.  
Too weak to escape the monster's final strike, Saria was struck once again. She could barely move, as of that moment. Struggle as she might, she completely lost the ability to move. After the final strike, Saria was about to accept her fate, "_I'm sorry... I thought I was strong enough to protect you three, but I was wrong_".

"I really think that we shouldn't leave Saria, I'm really worried. I don't care how well she's doing," Red said, his face turning rose from concern.  
"I don't know how Saria's doing. Unfortunately, Saria requested to take this fight alone, even if it means that she feels. She said that she wouldn't have been able to live knowing that the three people she cared about survived because she requested help. She said that she promised that she'd protect the forest with her life," Vio said.  
"Th-that means that she'd rather die and give everything up as opposed to going back on her word?" Link asked, surprised at that bold promise.  
"Yeah, that's exactly what that means," Vio said. "I don't like it any more than you do, but it's simply disrespectful not to be noble to Saria's wishes. Even if it means that she dies trying".  
Red was choking back tears, "But why would she make such a promise?" he asked. "Why would she throw away the three people that she cares about the most just because of a promise? You would think that she wouldn't be above asking for help just to stay noble to her word".  
"I'm guessing that it's simply pride that's keeping her from asking for help," Vio said. "I tried to tell her that there's nothing perfidious about asking for help under her promise. Unfortunately, she told me that she would never make anyone do a job that she should do. She told me about how she's ashamed that she had to ask for help as much as she has, and that she would never break her own rule ever again".  
"B-but, that doesn't make sense," Red replied. "Saria doesn't deserve such a fate. Why would she feel as if she has to die for something that isn't her fault?".  
"I can't tell, for sure," Vio said.  
Blue knelt to Red's level and put his hand on Red's shoulder, "I know that it doesn't make sense," he said. "But you'll just have to be strong, some people do things that can be perceived as illogical". Red began sniffling, "I know that you're hurt, but sometimes you just have to respect peoples' wishes".

"_HELP! HELP ME!_" Saria tried to scream. She had finally come to terms that she couldn't do it. After thinking about her wishes, Saria came to terms about how she would rather break her own rule to protect the lives of those, whom she loves.

Vio's pupils dilated, "I hear Saria begging for help".  
"This is no time to pretend," Blue replied. "I know that you, of all people would know. But you've got to keep to your own words".  
"Saria might have heard Red's weeping," Vio said. "I'm not lying; I'd never lie about anything this serious. Much less would I lie about anything".  
"You'd better not," Blue said. "Link, Red. go right ahead".  
They both nodded, they held hands and created another warp to where Saria was. "_I feel weird doing this_".  
"_It doesn't matter, at least Saria came to her senses,_" Vio said.  
"_Did you influence Saria's thought pattern?_" Link asked.  
"_I'll tell the truth, you might dislike what I've done...,_" Vio began.  
"_Get on with it!_" Link prodded.  
"_I took Red's thoughts and projected it into Saria's head as a voice of reason,_" Vio said. "_I couldn't let such a skilled warrior die like that, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that skilled on the battle field_".  
"_Fair enough, I suppose,_" Link replied. They stepped through the fully developed portal, "_It's still disrespectful to Saria's wishes. I don't like it one bit, what you've done was pretty low of you. Seeing as how we were going to respect Saria's wishes_".  
"_...I couldn't let Saria's ignorance kill her! She has so much more potential that would've been wasted on that bastard she's getting killed by, as we speak!_".  
"_...Says the one who said that we should simply respect her wishes...,_" Link said.  
His statements, while very snide, were completely justified. Vio couldn't pull up the disrespect card on him, he would just have to take a couple of shots to defend Saria.  
But it was to no avail, they had arrived too late, "_Dammit!_" Vio cursed.  
Red, as if he had known her for years, ran over to Saria's body and cried over it.  
"What a shame," Blue commented. His veins were boiling with anger, he unsheathed his blade and harshly charged the creature and violently slashed. He didn't care how inaccurate his strikes were, all he cared about was how much pain would be inflicted with each shot of his blade.  
"Blue! Keep striking! We'll handle the creature from here!" Link shouted.  
"Link! Take your anger out on the creature! Every single thing that Blue said that pissed you off, every snide comment, every rude remark!" Vio shouted.  
Link shouted and charged at the creature, his strikes were nearly as powerful as Blue's berserk and was more accurate.  
While Link and Blue wore themselves out striking the monster, Vio ran over to Red. "Red, I need you to calm down".  
"B-But! Saria! S-She...," Red trailed off.  
"I know! But I have a plan! There's a trick that I picked up a while back, I just need you to calm down!" Vio said. As Vio always knew what he was talking about, Red tried his best to remain calm. After about five minutes, he had stopped crying and was waiting for an explanation, "Remember what you did to cure Link's severe burns?".  
"Yeah," Red said.  
"Saria isn't nearly as injured, she's just a little jarred," Vio said. "If you put enough power into the spell, Saria will be fine. She's just unconscious".  
He nodded, focusing magic onto his hands. He touched Saria's forehead and her body steadily bore less and less wounds until they dissipated. She would still be too weak to continue fighting. "I think it's working!" Red remarked, in surprise. -  
"Good! She'll still be unconscious, but a little bed rest should fix that," Vio said. Vio joined in the fray as the creature displayed no signs of weakening. As he was striking the creature, Vio took some elements into consideration, "_Since Valani'ile cannot read my mind unless I willingly project my thoughts onto him, did he create this creature to waste our time?_" as he took a couple more minutes to take that notion into heavy consideration, it began to make sense. "_Maybe if I have Red teleport me to the crystal so that we can recover it, we can both bring Saria to the crystal so that she can recover it in order to avoid any adversity_". Vio however, could see right through the trap. He needed to figure out how to test that theory without disclosing any of his plans to Red, Link, or Blue.  
"_I can't really teleport anywhere, myself. So I'm going to have to take a risk if I want to get anywhere,_" Vio said. "Here goes nothing...".  
"_Really? Why do you want to teleport back to our world?_" Red asked Vio.  
"_I have a secret... something that I don't want any other soul to know,_" Vio knew that Red was a sucker for juicy secrets. "_I hope this works_".  
Red opened a small warp and they slipped out of the room and into the forest, "So what was the dirty little secret?" Red asked.  
"Valani'ile probably created that creature to keep Saria and the four of us distracted. Thus, wasting our time, thinking that this creature will eventually be vanquished".  
"That's the secret?" Red asked, a little disappointed. "I teleported all the way over here to a realm that dried out the rest of my power to this?".  
"Here," Vio handed Red a pouch a blue potion. "I was saving this back if I ever needed it". Red gulped the potion down.  
"Where are we going?" Red asked.  
"I'll answer this with a question: Do you know where the crystal is located?" Blue asked.  
"I can teleport there easily...," Red boasted.  
"Alright, that potion is good for several transportations...," Blue began.  
"Wait just a minute! Why did I go though all of that pain!?" Red asked, flushing from rage.  
"I didn't have that potion in the very beginning...," Vio said. "Whenever I left, I bought a magical elixir under the assumption that I could teach myself how to cast spells. But then I thought that I'd save it for later".  
"...And you didn't have it under your possession whenever we were sacrificing ourselves!? Aren't _you_ the one that comes prepared for everything!?" Red shouted, his entire face was beaming red.  
"Now's not the time to be discussing this! Unless you want to piss every hope of preserving Saria's life and securing the forest crystal down the drain, you'll listen to me!" Vio shouted, his yelling echoed far.  
"I'll listen, but this all but excuses you from this, Vio," Red said, slightly less infuriated. "_Gods, you tell me that you've got a dirty secret and you give me this, you're so nice_".  
"I told you to let it go, for a minute. I promise that we'll discuss this later," Vio said. "If it'll make you feel better, I'll tell you a humiliating secret. Trust me, it's quite humiliating... just listen to me for a second".  
"Alright, I'm listening," Red said, in an irritated manner.  
"I gave you the potion so that you've got enough energy so that you can teleport Saria to the crystal to eradicate the demon. We'll all take things from there".  
"Alright, then," Red said. He opened a portal back to the room where Link and Blue were fending off the creature, still as energetic as they were at first.  
"Hurry! He could be catching on to the secret!" Blue said.  
"Right!" Red reopened a portal to the realm they were just in. He closed the portal and completely restored Saria.  
Saria held her head, "Where am I?".  
Blue held the various fragments of the crystals that they had recovered, "I retrieved the crystals from Red and Blue before we left. I knew that I had to go back to help you, it's the only way to set things right and restore everything back to normal".  
"I knew that I asked for your help, but I still feel as if I'm going back on my word," Saria said.  
"I'll put it this way, do you care about the lives of the three that you love the most?" Vio said.  
"I never said that I wouldn't follow through with the plan," Saria said. "...What is the plan?".  
"As Link and Blue fend off the creature, we're going to transport to the place where the darkened Forest crystal is, just passed the room where Link and Blue are fighting. Take these crystal fragments to reform the pendant, you'll know what to do, from there. Trust me, the odds of failure are minimal".  
"There's little else that we could do, so I'll trust you," Saria said. Blue placed into Saria's hand. the fragments. She slipped them into a pouch and put it securely into her pocket along with the key that she's been holding on to.  
"Go on along," Vio instructed to Red. He nodded and opened a warp that led to the room just passed the chamber. Saria, Vio, then Red slipped through the warp and into the massive, cathedral like, chamber that housed the equally as massive forest crystal, which ominously glowed with darkness.  
Saria felt the darkness emanating from the crystal even stronger than the creature, she grew to understand that the creature was being controlled by whatever possessed the crystal. She soon made the connection that the creature would go after Link first because he was the Hero of Time and likely had the most power to shatter Valani'ile's plans.  
They walked up the stairs that sprawled hundreds of meters. Everything of the temple was intricately decorated, but nothing compared to the brilliant designs of the darkened crystal.  
It took them nearly an hour to reach the giant pedestal, encrusted with a black crystal that modified the crystal that once symbolized the life of the plants in the forests. "_This is it... this is for the three of you,_" Saria closed her eyes and pressed the crystal fragments in her hand. Her hands began to glow, and the crystal seemed to shine through her hands. The crystal looked as if the energy contained in the crystal emanated enough light to eradicate everything within a three kilometre radius of it's path. Saria clutched the pendant in her hand with seemingly inhuman strength.  
"_Good Lady of Hyrule, that pendant must be extremely difficult to assemble,_" Red exclaimed.  
"_That pendant took a lot of strength to shatter, it makes sense that the pendant would also require a great amount of strength to reform,_" Vio replied.  
"_It's like nothing I've ever seen before,_" he said. It was quite a bold statement on behalf of everything that he and the other three had experienced.  
Saria opened her eyes and loosened her grasp on the crystal, Saria then unsheathed her rapier and struck the crystal once with a light charge in the blade. The crystal cracked and eventually fell to the ground. She placed the pendant back into the pedestal, and the plain looking, murky green crystal began to shatter just as it had whenever Link had destroyed the darkened crystal so long ago. The same strong energy radiated throughout the dark crystal as it had whenever the two of them had experienced it before. The curious feeling that the crystal produced was an anxious and painful, piercing pain as all of the vile energy that once saturated the crystal receded and defused itself into a lower concentration. Soon enough, the waves of energy emitted a deafening roar that seemed to be enough to kill someone.  
Red felt a strong disturbance, "_I don't know if Link and Blue are safe, they've been attacking that creature for a while now. I hope they're fine_".  
"_I've got a feeling that you should open the gate!_" Vio shouted over the roar.  
Red could only hear Vio's voice in his head, he closed his eyes and forced the doorway slowly open. "_Follow me! We can't stand around here! Link and Blue are probably too worn out to continue fending that thing off!_".  
"The demon was being powered through the crystal!" Vio shouted. "If we hurry, we can vanquish the thing! There's no telling what could happen if we don't destroy it!". Vio drew his blade and ran with Red through the massive doorway. Through entrance, they found that Link and Blue were on the ground, covering their ears.  
"Link! Blue!" Vio ran over to them. "Link, Blue! I need you to drink this potion!".  
Link took a portion of it and Vio gave the rest to Blue, they stood.  
"Wait just a minute-," Blue cut himself off. Link was going to bring the same conversation to attention. However, they both knew that such a conversation could not be brought up at that moment. They were prepared to fend off the creature, but it was reduced to carnage and bones. The darkness that tainted the Forest Temple seemed to continuously spread itself just as it would if the crystal had still been flooded with the dark energy that it once contained.  
Meanwhile, the power and radiation was so strong, that Saria fainted. She felt the same disturbance that she felt whenever she fainted midway in the Forest Temple.  
"_Let's grab Saria and get out of here!_" Vio said, directed at everyone. They all agreed and they returned to the giant chamber; in the chamber, they saw two things which were enough to frighten them. Their bones trembled as they saw Valani'ile on the floor, cradling Saria and coughing blood. It was evident that he was mortally wounded. He didn't look anything like the Valani'ile that nearly murdered Red and Blue, his hair was a silver teal, he looked angelic and wore white armor laced with gold. He practically resembled Rydia with long and straight silver teal hair. Instead of killing Valani'ile, they ran over to better understand the situation.  
Valani'ile was shaking with weakness, "S-Saria! She must be treated immediately! There's no telling of what would happen if Saria dies!".  
"_How would we help!?_" Vio shouted. "_If anything, you would be the only qualified person to help Saria. For we do not know of any possible solution to cure Saria!_".  
"_There is only one way! One way that only the four of you have the power to do! Please! You must summon Moria, the Goddess of the Forest! She is one of the three sisters of Rydia! Only you have the power to form a bridge between that world and ours! Summon Moria as if you were calling to Rydia for help!_".  
"_Fine! But we're only summoning Moria because we can't help Saria ourselves!_" Vio said. "_Everyone! You must call upon Moria! Now!_". The four of them held each others' hand and together, they began to conjure a weak force of light. That force however, was being choked out by the continuous darkness that was emitted from the large crystal that turned a lighter murky green than before. It was obvious that they would have to put a dangerous amount of power to choke out the darkness in comparison as it wouldn't start weakening any time soon.  
After a couple of minutes worth of releasing as much power as they could handle, the once dim light grew stronger and stronger. The darkness, as a result was corroding around the light; slowly, but surely, it became easier and easier to overpower the massive amounts of energy that the dark crystal emitted.  
"_I think that the light that we're producing is corroding the darkness!_" Red exclaimed.  
"_Indeed, it is!_" Valani'ile exclaimed. "_Whenever the darkness completely fades, you'll be able to rescue Saria!_".  
"_Why are you helping us?_" Vio asked, with suspicion and skepticism.  
"_I'll explain later! For now, continue producing the light! Soon enough, the energy that you produce will destroy all of the darkness that ails Saria!_".  
The darkness as it sensed danger, built itself up into a large creature that looked like the shadow of the evil Valani'ile. Soon enough, the shadows reformed into the Valani'ile that they had once fought so long ago. He spoke in a voice that sharply pierced through all of the deafening noise that amplified itself, "To think that you could've finally succeeded in a task that once appeared entirely plausible. Now, would I really let you win my game that easily? To think of it, would you think that I would let you win whenever I hold all of the playing cards in one hand? How could you think that I would let you get this far without throwing my little death switch? Now that you've gotten this far, I will weaken you to a crippled pulp. I will crush the four of you like the insects you are!" this version of Valani'ile was much more ruthless than the Valani'ile that they had once knew.  
"_How interesting, it seems as if the demonic half of Valani'ile and the angelic half have completely split apart from each other,_" Vio said. "_Will you assist us, Valani'ile!_".  
"_This is my fight, you bastard!_" Valani'ile shouted at his evil half. He put Saria down and drew his blade, "_I'll destroy you regardless of my weakened condition_". With that, the demonic Valani'ile simply defended himself. He hadn't struck his angelic half once, this only begged for theories that Vio would come up with.  
"_Why isn't the evil Valani'ile so much as laying a hand on his angelic half?_" Vio asked himself. "_It's as if it isn't in Valani'ile's interest to destroy any benevolent influences that could affect his ability to put his evil agenda forth. Even so, it doesn't make any sort of sense, How could it be? It's not as if either half have no interest in harming each other. Why would the angelic half of Valani'ile want to destroy himself? I would think that destroying one half of himself would be like chopping a human body in half_".  
The angelic Valani'ile struck the demonic Valani'ile with a harsh sweep. He fed off of the light that was produced from the energy that they created. Vio figured that the only possible reason for Angelic Valani'ile to want to destroy half of himself is so that the light that was created from the four of them would feed the lost energy that destroying the dark energy would take.  
"_I think I have it...,_" Vio figured. "_It's quite possible that Valani'ile wants to destroy his evil half while simultaneously restoring the lost pieces with the light that we create. Will this really help Saria?_" he looked over to Saria. He could see that a small string of the light connected to Saria's body, "_Is this really the power of Valani'ile controlling the power that we produce? Is this the work of Moria? Or is Valani'ile simply much stronger than we are at such a dramatically weakened state?_".  
With another strike, dark Valani'ile was almost struck completely to the ground. He got up and rolled over to the side to dodge another sweep of light Valani'ile's blade. The blade, broke the ground of the temple, he picked it back up and rushed right back for dark Valani'ile.  
At this point, Valani'ile knew that not only Moria would be summoned, Rydia would also be summoned. It amazed him how strong Link, Red, Blue, and Vio's powers were. Even with his abilities amplifying theirs, it didn't seem like nearly enough energy to be able to summon two Goddesses, let alone just Moria.  
"_This is all too much to handle, given our conditions, isn't it?_" Vio speculated. "_If it it's possible now, to conjure such a ray of light energy, how possible will it continue to stay?_" Vio searched as hard as he could to sense any solid and definite possibilities of their ability to cast such a strong spell would ever begin to weaken. "_Despite the light seemingly multiplying so rapidly, I can sense that there's definitely a string attached somewhere. A string that could potentially form a dent in the chances of success. I can't afford to fail again, I can't afford to lose another life. Even if Red's soul moved back into his body... wait a minute, how are Red and Blue still alive?_" Vio asked Valani'ile.  
"_I did it,_" Valani'ile said. "_whenever all the light was focused whenever you destroyed or, at least weakened my dark half. I had enough energy to cut away from myself in order to spare the life of your dear companions_".  
"_Regardless of your dark half being weakened, wouldn't he still have some control over your overall decisions?_" Vio asked.  
"_That is indeed, a good question that I wouldn't expect even you to know,_" he said. "_I took the risk of possibly lending over my light to my darker half whenever I used bits and pieces of my energy to make anew, Red and Blue. Valani'ile new that the existence of all four of you was simply imperative to continue his own existence as well as mine. He knows that we cannot exist apart unless we were to undergo metamorphosis_".  
"_I see,_" Vio said.  
"_Unfortunately, you don't,_" he said. "_I won't be able to tell you of the whole scenario that dark Valani'ile is truly processing as of this moment. I can say that Rydia wasn't jesting nor lying whenever she said that she was powerless to do anything. However, she was unaware that the light version of me was to be channeled through the combined version of Valani'ile. Before, you saw that the Valani'ile which you first fought was very calm, friendly and tactical. Almost as if he could be treated as an ally. However, you found it hard to believe that such a benevolent creature that would even offer for you to mourn over the death of your friend would cause such turmoil in your world.  
The origin of us splitting rooted from Valani'ile's evil half channeling through the light half of him: me. However, he still yearned to be accepted back into the divine bloodline of Gods and Goddesses. Being the brother of Din, he naturally sought power and became evil and ruthless. Soon enough, he caused the Gorons to become a species. They were innocent citizens of Hyrule until Valani'ile placed a curse on a few citizens cursing them to forever live in the mountains to eat rocks. Rydia: the sister of Nayru, disowned her cousin: Valani'ile from the royal divinity and banished him to be the malevolent God of the Jade realm of hell. Moria and Rydia, are now the only Goddesses that relate to Din, Nayru and Farore. Their children, are the guardians of the seven sages. They have grown to despise Valani'ile for cursing the Gorons to an eternity of suffering and soon led the Gorons to freedom. This further cursed his name, as a result; he created his benevolent half in attempt to once more, be a benevolent overseer and guardian of Hyrule. Unfortunately, his evil half had long taken the dominant place in his heart from so many years of malice that dwelt in his heart_".  
"_How did the evil infect his heart?_" Vio asked. "_I've always read from the book of Mudora for an answer, but I've never gotten one_".  
"_It's fairly complicated to explain,_" Valani'ile stated. He struck his darker half for the final time, until his power began to grow greater and greater, once more. "_He thought that creating a humanoid species for the mountain would be an interesting project. He is in fact, a demigod as he is merely the brother of Din. She refused the permission to create a rock species for undisclosed reasons and Valani'ile had to create a specter just powerful enough to not be destroyed by any earthly power but just weak enough to be done away with. He made this creature to curse the Hylians of Darunia Village to live in the mountains because they could only eat rocks_".  
"_What of the Zora, or Kokiri children?_" Vio asked.  
"_These humanoid creatures have indeed, very different stories,_" Valani'ile said. "_...Not just from the Goron people, but from all of each other to begin with. Are you familiar with the creation of the Kokiri children?_" Valani'ile asked.  
"_I've heard little pieces briefly covered in the other volumes from the Hylian and Mudorian collection_" Vio said.  
"_...And the Zora?_" Valani'ile continued.  
"_I've not heard anything of their creation, really,_" Vio said. "_I find that the book of Mudora is vaguely written_".  
"_...Then I shall tell you of the creation of the Zora and Kokiri, and explain the creation of the book of Mudora,_" Valani'ile started. "_The Kokiri children were all of the offspring from a village of high elves, known as Mordjin. Their were hundreds of children that lived in the village: at 1000 years old, they still resembled children no older than 6. Their village was located in what now, is known as the Kokiri Forest: a place that originally housed high elves that only lived to be 10000 years old. Fairly young in terms of the average life expectancy of the typical high elf.  
Unfortunately, the lot of the children that lived in the forest have died, leaving the remaining children that remain blatantly immature just as they were nearly 60000 years ago. As a result, some of the children just aged slower than others, they were soon able to choose how old they wanted to be and the ones that were able to control their age simply didn't want to live with immature children. Conclusively, they escaped from the forest and spread out far and wide from the Kokiri forest and formed villages. The closest village being located just outside of the walls that housed the Forest temple. Originally, the Forest Temple was a Mansion that the tree elves built for their leader__. They had discovered many things from the Hylians from the Castle town and learned how to emulate their architecture. They built the temple as a project that was the result of almost 40 years of work.  
I digress; I shall now move on to the origin of the Zora people._".  
"_Please... continue,_" Vio said, slightly low on energy.  
"_I can tell that you're getting weary,_" Valani'ile said. "_The fight will be finished, the fight already has been won. It won't be long until my dark side is powerless.  
Now, the creation of the Zora, they were actually directly created by Nayru and Rydia. They were born initially, as creatures that lived deep beneath the surface of Lake Hylia until one Zora was born that genetically mutated. Eventually, since this Zora was more likely to survive, the gene completely replaced the traditional genetic trait to live underwater. The evolution to more closely, resemble a Hylian was simply an analogous and convergent evolution. however, they still resemble amphibia because they evolved similar to other Amphibians such as the frog_".  
"_So you're saying that it was just evolution?_" Vio asked.  
"_Exactly_," Valani'ile replied. "_Finally, to explain the vagueness of the book of Mudora. There was a man who wanted to know everything about the universe and requested to me that I write a book explaining everything about the universe. I wrote the book for him, but it was inscribed in a foreign language that wasn't existent. not even my cousins: the two other demigods can offer a translation. The man was bewildered and asked for a copy of the book that was written in a language that he could read. To which I simply replied that I couldn't tell him all of the secrets of the universe. For there are some things that aren't meant to be known by mortals_".  
"_That does indeed explain a lot of things,_" Vio said. "_But what of the vagueness about the creation of the Zora people, Gorons, and Kokiri children?_".  
"_You are one of the only mortals that would be able to understand the real creation of these species. We didn't want mortals pointing fingers at other people about their origin of existence. Some people are unfortunately ignorant_".

With that, both Valani'iles fell to the ground, the four of them rushed over to light Valani'ile to help him in any way they possibly could. They all, continued to shed their light energy onto him so that he may part from his evil counterpart.  
"You can't die now!" Vio said. he took out a Red potion and gave it to him, "I've got this potion. please drink it! I'm not sure how much good this will do...". Valani'ile rejected the potion and thanked Vio for his potion anyways. That didn't help the antagonizing that Vio was going to have to withstand for quite a while.  
"Please, fear not," he said. "It is only the human half of me that is dying. Whenever I die, my evil side will die along with it. Please fear not, everyone. Please, let nature take it's course on me". The four of them then proceeded to take their distance away from the dying demigod.  
Meanwhile, the dark and Malevolent half of Valani'ile was dissipating and restoring itself back into the benevolent energy that once was Valani'ile.  
As he took his final breath, his last bit of energy had completely absorbed into his other half's body. The process of purifying Valani'ile was completed, everyone had succeeded and it was time for all of the others to return back home.  
Saria had also awoken from her deep sleep, she was completely disoriented, she had no idea who she even was. She wouldn't regain her sense of memory until she returned to her rightful realm.  
"I can tell that Saria's first quest has quite taken it's toll on Saria," Valani'ile said. "However, she will also be fine, she needs to be returned back to her own realm. Unfortunately, she won't have any recollection of you until she returns. That means that any goodbyes or farewells will not be remembered".  
"I don't care as long as Saria's safe," Link said.  
"I agree," Vio said. "She will always have the memory of us with her".  
"Indeed," Blue said.  
"I still kinda wanted to hug Saria goodbye," Red said, in a disappointed manner.  
"It is quite a shame, I know," he said. "But I feel that these hours will not be your final hours with Saria," Valani'ile said.  
"I don't care if you remember, I still enjoyed your company while I had it," Red said, hugging Saria.  
She giggled, "As I don't really know where I am, I can't simply overlook the fact that you're so adorable!".  
"_Typical response,_" Link said.  
To which, Blue and Vio snickered.  
"I suppose there's no shame in at least wishing you well despite the fact that you won't remember anyway," Vio said. She put his hand on her shoulder, "Saria, I hope your life is pleasant and I hope to see you again".  
"Yes," Saria said. "But Link, aren't you just coming home with me?".  
"I'm sorry to say, but this is an entirely different realm than the others," Vio said. "Especially different than the realm you lived in".  
"_This has to be a dream,_" Saria said. "Alright, I'll see the five of you another time, but I've got to wake Link up in the morning. We're going to have a specially prepared breakfast tomorrow morning".  
"I never have breakfast prepared for me," Link began. "I've got to make it myself".  
"I never eat breakfast, so quit complaining," Blue snarled.  
Valani'ile had shot up into a ray of magnificent light; soon after, they all began to feel dizzy. Link, Red, Blue, and Vio all tried to fight it, while Saria didn't fight it. Yet, they all lost their consciousness.

* * *

They all woke up in the familiar palace of Rydia, Saria had never been in the palace before. She thought that she was just in Hyrule castle, the castle had various different food courts, dining halls, and regular halls which all looked completely different. Since Saria hasn't seen all six, she just went under the assumption that Zelda and the others would come from one of the many intersections and/or diversions that existed in the massive, metallic white dining hall.  
"I see that we've got ourselves a special guest," Rydia said, she sat in a magnificent chair that sat opposed to Saria where Red sat to Saria's right, Link to her left and Vio to Rydia's right while Blue sat to Rydia's left. "Please Saria, dine until you cannot. This food will not only restore you to perfect health, but restore any of your lost memories and mend afflictions".  
"What food?" Saria asked. Rydia snapped and various platters of rich fruits, salads, and other rare foods appeared right on the table.  
"This is my favorite part of saving the world!" Red exclaimed. He made himself a massive platter of salad, various meats, and plenty of deserts. With that exclamation, he was quick to be Saria's favorite of the four of them.  
"This is just like Hyrule castle," Saria commented.  
"Hyrule Castle was closely modeled after the divine palace," Rydia said. "They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder," she said. "...And it certainly is, you all just happen to enjoy the same architecture".  
"It's quite fascinating, the way this castle was designed and how mere mortals were able to emulate its architectural style so closely".  
"It's certainly interesting," Rydia said. "Moria thought that the only true way that our beloved mortals would remember us and treat us as family is to birth descendants of our children, who are the closest to mortal as divine creatures get".  
"Quite fascinating, indeed," Saria said. She took a sip of what she predicted would be that nasty, strong red wine that the royal Hylians love drinking. But the wine that she took a sip of was sweet and tasted like a variation of fruit.  
Just hours later, they were all stuffed full of pure divine essence and were all ready to return to their rightful realm. Saria hugged everyone goodbye and they all hugged her. After they all said their goodbyes, Rydia gave Saria something to remember her by.  
"Please, take this and use it whenever you want to talk to me about anything. I'm always available," Rydia said. "I am a God, after all. The same goes for you boys".  
They all nodded and went through the portal.  
"_I could never make a portal that could lead to two different places,_" Red said, in amazement. "_I didn't even know that was possible!_".


End file.
